Biscuits & cakes 2024: NPD helps sweet biccies bounce back

Sweet biscuit brands are back in business. Last year’s report outlined how budget-conscious shoppers swapped branded biccies for cheaper own-label alternatives. Brands saw volumes fall. Twelve months later, they’re back in growth and 12 of the top 20 players have sold more kilos.

As brands have seen volumes grow 2.2%, private label has sunk 1.4%. “Own label has lost volume share largely due to a lack of innovation when compared to leading branded manufacturers,” says Arturo Caballero, NIQ analytics executive. Meanwhile, brands – which were slow on the innovation front last year – renewed their focus on NPD in 2024.

Category leader McVitie’s is a prime example. It has seen “one of our biggest years to date in terms of innovation”, says Aslı Özen Turhan, chief marketing officer at owner Pladis UK & Ireland.

The summer saw McVitie’s debut Jaffa Cakes Cola Bottle, Rich Tea The Cocoa One, Seriously Chocolatey Digestives, Gold Digestives and the three-strong Signature range. They helped to keep volumes more or less flat.

In the case for Signature, it also premiumised the brand’s portfolio. The “ultra-indulgent” lineup unlocked a “slightly higher” price point and posher positioning for McVitie’s, says Özen Turhan. With an rsp of £2 for 142g pack, the biscuits are 76.9% pricier per 100g than Seriously Chocolatey Digestives (rsp: £1.99/250g).

“Tailored specifically to meet the demand for indulgent evening treats, McVitie’s Signature’s enhanced flavours, textures and luxury appeal warrants a slightly bigger price tag – one very much in line with the post-8pm occasion, which has historically been dominated by dearer categories like confectionery and ice cream,” Özen Turhan adds.

Premium innovation also paid dividends for Fox’s, sweet biscuits’ number two player. It shifted an extra four million kilos after adding dark Chocolate versions of its Half Coated Cookies and Chocolatey Rounds. The July launch was to “encourage consumers to trade up”, says Colin Taylor, Fox’s trade marketing director. The brand’s retail value is up 14.9%.

For Mondelez, innovation efforts could be key to reviving flagging sales. It’s seen its Cadbury and Oreo brands suffer volume declines after average Prices rose. They’ve sold 1.6 million fewer kilos combined.

Cadbury also saw £2.0m wiped away, while Oreo’s £2.9m gain was purely down to higher prices. As reported by The Grocer in August, the shelf price of Oreo Original cookies rocketed as much as 25% in the supermarkets over an eight-week period. A spokeswoman for Mondelez confirmed it had “made some carefully considered list price increases across our Oreo range” in July. The price increases had been implemented as a “last resort” as the business was “continuing to experience significantly higher input costs across our supply chain, with ingredients such as cocoa and sugar, which are widely used in our products, costing far more than they have done previously”.

HFSS-driven reformulation

Since then, Oreo has been innovating in a bid to claw back volumes. It reformulated its Original cookie in July, reducing the sugar content and boosting the cocoa in its biscuits. Shoppers were promised the “tastiest Oreo cookie yet”.

Two months later, the brand unveiled a limited-edition Gingerbread variant ahead of the festive period.

NPD has also been part of Mondelez’s strategy for Lu. The French biscuit brand has seen volumes grow 12.5%. That success was helped by the launch of the Le Petit Cookie variant in March, says Susan Nash, the supplier’s trade communications manager. The launch was “the first cookie to join the Lu range in the UK” and “has been backed by significant media investment”.

Lu’s ‘There’s nothing petit about it’ push kicked off in August. It comprised a series of social and digital ads starring First Dates host Fred Sirieix, backed by OOH assets that “heroed the irresistible crunch of the new cookie”.

Innovation buoys cakes

A taste for new launches is evident in ambient cakes, too. Take McVitie’s, which  rolled out Jaffa Cakes Cola Bottle bars in July.

Cake bars represent “the biggest sales opportunity” in the sector due to their convenient format, says Özen Turhan. The Jaffa Cake bars “have got shoppers talking… and purchasing. In our launch marketing, we joke about it being the flavour no one asked for, yet it’s flying off the shelves.”

It’s helped push McVitie’s cake volumes back into the black, by 1.1%, after the double-digit decline in last year’s report.

Mr Kipling and Cadbury have also reversed their fortunes, selling an extra two million kilos combined. Much like Pladis did with McVitie’s biscuits, Premier Foods sought to “bring true indulgence to the cake aisle” by expanding the Mr Kipling Signature Collection range with two variants.

Chocolate & Caramel Layer Cakes and Double Chocolate Cakes hit shelves in April. They were developed to “excite and delight shoppers, while helping retailers to make the most of the growing treat occasion, which continues to provide a scalable opportunity”, says Naomi Shooman, Premier’s global brand director for sweet treats. “The Signature Collection small cakes have brought a new luxurious proposition to the category by delivering the rich chocolate flavours shoppers seek, whilst helping retailers unlock ‘everyday premium’ moments.”

Premiumisation has been key to the overall ambient cake category’s £75.6m gain, says NIQ’s Caballero. “Although the segment has seen a 4.6% rise in value, there has been a 0.4% decline in volume compared to last year. This indicates that, while consumers are spending more, they are purchasing fewer products, with price inflation playing a key role in shaping the market dynamics.”

In this inflationary environment, keeping shelf prices competitive has proven challenging for some brands. Bonne Maman, for instance, has “felt the impact of substantial increases in raw materials such as butter and chocolate”, says the brand’s international marketing manager Théo Chaineau.

“We have chosen to maintain quality of offer throughout, but this has led to price increases and some contraction in range distribution.” This, coupled with HFSSregulations that have “necessarily reduced our in-store activities”, means Bonne Maman has lost 5.8% of volumes.

Cereal bars struggle

A fall in volumes is also an issue for makers of cereal bars. The category is down 302.8 thousand kilos and half of the top 10 brands are in decline.

Of the names to have shifted more product, Mondelez’s Cadbury Brunch is the biggest. Its 2.6% volume gain was aided by the addition of non-HFSS range Cadbury Brunch Light in Honey & Oat and Orange.

It’s helped retailers “unlock additional healthier snacking sales”, says Nash. “The new range has been incredibly successful since launching in May, bringing new shoppers into the brand and driving strong incremental sales.”

It’s not all been smooth sailing for Cadbury Brunch, however. In September, its multipacks were found to have shrunk 12.5%, with no changes to shelf prices. Again, Mondelez blamed soaring input costs.

Brunch’s savoury sister brand Ritz has also been shrinkflating. Its cracker packs were cut up to 30%, The Grocer reported in May. Volume sales of Ritz are now down 8.6%, which NIQ research executive Wardah Khan attributes to “shelf space loss after downsizing packs and undergoing sharper price hikes”.

Still, Ritz isn’t alone in shedding savoury biccie volumes. Rival brands Carr’s, Ryvita Crackerbread and Ryvita Thins are down 10.8%, 12.6% and 18.7% respectively.

Özen Turhan at Pladis admits “sales of our premium Carr’s brand have hit a small speed bump, perhaps unsurprisingly, as shoppers continue to be affected by price pressures and are tempted by products with a slightly lower price tag”. Carr’s was able to “minimise” more dramatic declines, she insists, by expanding its Melts range with a chutney-inspired Caramelised Red Onion line, which hit shelves in April.

That trendy flavour also made its way into the Jacob’s innovation pipeline. The Carr’s stablemate and category leader featured it as part of its new Bites range in July.

The aim: to put a bit of zing back in the savoury biscuits sector.

Read more: Biscuits & cakes 2023: Brands lose out as biscuit NPD slows