Will McVitie’s NPD push win back shoppers from own label?

Britain’s top-selling biscuit brand is throwing its weight behind a major NPD push.

Recent weeks have seen McVitie’s add a limited-edition Cola spin-off for Jaffa Cakes; expand its Chocolate Digestives lineup with Gold and Seriously Chocolatey; launch a chocolate version of Rich Tea biscuits, The Cocoa One; and add a trio of “indulgent” biscuits targeted at evening snacking occasions under a new sub-range, Signature. So, what’s behind this sudden innovation flurry?

McVitie’s is among the swathe of fmcg brands to have lost volumes to own label amid the cost of living crisis. As reported in The Grocer’s Britain’s Biggest Brands 2024 report, it sold 7.3 million fewer packs through the tills last year, with its £65.6m value gain driven mainly by higher prices [NIQ 52 w/e 31 December 2024].

As household budgets tightened, shoppers bought more own-label biscuits, available at a fraction of the price. Tesco, for instance, is selling 266g packs of McVitie’s Milk Chocolate Digestives for £1.90 (71p/100g). Meanwhile, its own-label alternatives have a shelf price of 85p for 300g packs (28p/100g).

What brands does Pladis own?

If brands can’t compete with the retailers on price in this challenging climate, they must offer something unique to drive incremental sales. Presumably, that’s why McVitie’s is focusing on underserved markets with its latest NPD drive.

Cola Jaffa Cakes and Gold Digestives are targeted at 18 to 35-year-olds, seeking something “new and different”. Meanwhile, Seriously Chocolatey Digestives and the Signature trio are suitably indulgent to cater to afternoon and evening snacking, “where the category currently under-trades”, according to McVitie’s.

Rich Tea The Cocoa One is non-HFSS, meaning it can be promoted on gondola ends, unlike most of its closest rivals. Pladis also registered ‘McVitie’s Zero’ with the Intellectual Property Office in June, signalling a healthier treatment for Digestives.

“We have continued to leverage – and drive – the ever-evolving insights and trends within biscuits and snacking to make sure we are offering products that people want, and which span all snacking occasions,” says Asli Özen Turhan, UK&I CMO of McVitie’s owner Pladis.

Pladis’ future NPD pipeline

It echoes the sentiment set by Coca-Cola in 2017 to become a “total beverage company” by responding to changing consumer tastes, needs and buying patterns. Underlining this commitment to NPD, Pladis made two high-profile appointments to its R&D division in May. It hired Taryn-Lisa Mollé-McConnell as UK&I R&D VP and promoted Emily Stuart to UK&I head of innovation.

“We are investing significantly in R&D as we continue with the next phase of our strategy to make our snacks even more relevant to even more people,” says Özen Turhan. This ambition stretches beyond McVitie’s to “our entire snacking portfolio, across both sweet and savoury”, she adds.

Presumably, that means we can expect to see a similar pipeline for Jacob’s, which sold 9.9 million fewer packs through the tills last year [NIQ 52 w/e 31 December 2024]. Pladis appears to be focusing on healthier innovation for Jacob’s, relaunching Crinklys last year to make it HFSS compliant. Its Cheese & Onion variant was the second-highest retail value sales launch of 2023 in non-HFSS, according to Özen Turhan. However, it wasn’t sufficient to reverse Jacob’s unit declines alone.

Shoppers are fickle and Pladis will need to plan an impressive pipeline of NPD to keep them engaged, especially when budgets are tight. As Özen Turhan admits, leading brands “can never stand still”.