61 (56) Fanta
Sales: £116.4m -2.8%
Launch: 1940

Hopes were high for Fanta in 2012, as it was part of Coke’s on-site range in the Olympic Park. Even a major campaign comprising TV, sampling and a digital game set in the virtual world of Fanta City (right) wasn’t enough to sustain the strong growth of 2011.

62 (64) Richmond sausages
Sales: £114.9m +5.0%
Launch: 1889

Richmond moved into ham in 2012, backed by a £3m ‘all natural’ campaign with suitably ‘natural’ (ie starkers) farmers. The ads’ pseudo-British credentials landed the Irish ham in hot water with the ASA but clearly didn’t hurt sales, which rose by 5% year-on-year.

63 (66) Haribo
Sales: £114.4m +7.7%
Launch: 1920

Screening new TV ads entitled You’re Tangfastic, 2012 was all about themes, with more products for events like Easter, Halloween and Christmas. And German-owned Haribo also wrapped its brand in the Union Flag for the Jubilee. Volumes are up 5.0%.

64 (68) Weetabix
Sales: £114.2m +9.4%
Launch: 1932

Eighty years old and still in shape. How? “It starts with a great-tasting, nutritious cereal,” l. “Then we innovate and back it up with marketing.” Ad spend rose 20% in 2012 to support NPD, such as a golden syrup variant (below).

65 (77) Philadelphia
Sales: £113.9m +14.5%
Launch: 1880

Mixing Philadelphia cheese with Cadbury chocolate raised eyebrows - but the NPD has helped to raise sales and has since been extended into snacking formats. Combine it with marketing activity based on cooking with Philly and you have a recipe for success.

66 (63) Kleenex
Sales: £112.3m +1.6%
Launch: 1924

It’s in growth, but only just - and volumes are going south. Not through want of trying: owner Kimberly-Clark has been a prolific innovator in terms of format sizes and NPD such as Kleenex Balsam. Shame it’s been undermined by fierce promotional activity.

67 (67) McCoy’s
Sales: £112.2m +6.6%
Launch: 1985

McCoy’s male-centric promotions, focusing on Premier Darts League sponsorship and a Euro 2012 link-up, led to strong growth. It’s also learnt from Walkers, introducing sharing bags, which rolled into stores in April, and limited-edition flavour variants.

68 (104) Tate & Lyle
Sales: £112.1m +45.5%
Launch: 1878

Tate & Lyle has had a storming year. It launched Light at Heart - a mix of cane sugar and the natural sweetener stevia - at the end of 2011, supported by print and radio advertising. The product has proved a big hit, winning immediate listings in the big four.

69 (59) Air Wick
Sales: £112.0m -0.5%
Launch: 1943

Air Wick continued to deliver on the NPD front in 2012 with a new freshener that breathes in odours and breathes out fragranced air. But Air Wick Filter & Fresh has failed to have the same market impact as previous NPD, and sales slipped back by 0.5%.

70 (92) Quaker
Sales: £108.2m +25.0%
Launch: 1877

Fewer and fewer people are finding time to eat a proper breakfast these days. It’s all about grabbing a bite on the run or bolting something down at the desk. You’d have thought this would’ve been a killer blow to Quaker.

Quite the contrary. “Quaker is the fastest-growing major manufacturer in cereals,” says Patrick Kalotis, marketing director at brand owner PepsiCo. “With this success, we’re realising our ambition of breaking down barriers to porridge and getting more people eating a healthy breakfast on the go and at home.”

Innovation has been central to this success. Following the launch of Oats So Simple pots in 2011, Quaker unveiled two new ‘topping’ pots featuring separate compartments filled with oat cluster toppings in January 2012. This helped the format enter 1.1 million households last year, says Kalotis.

A month on and Quaker, clearly with breakfast-skippers in mind, launched cereal bars. It then added new flavours and larger formats for the core range in September, backed with TV ads throughout the winter. Not wanting things to go cold, in January Quaker jumped into breakfast biscuits. A busy year.

 

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