Consumer demand for hot cereals is slowing down after years of growth - as a result of warmer winters and growing interest in cold oat cereals.

The hot cereals category has fallen 1.9% in value to £100m over the past year, according to the Breakfast Cereal & Cereal Bar market report 2007, produced by The Weetabix Food Company.

Sales of boxed porridge, which makes up the biggest part of the hot market in volume and value terms, fell 4% to £61m, said the report. The leading boxed brands Ready Brek and Quaker Oats both experienced falls. Conversely, cold oat cereals launched by leading players Quaker Oats and Weetabix have performed well.

"Consumers are aware of the health benefits of oats but don't necessarily enjoy porridge or want to eat it all year round," said Ken Wood, chief executive of Weetabix. "Cold oats are an easy way of making oats accessible for everyone."

In an attempt to reverse the decline in the fortunes of the hot cereals sector, Quaker and Weetabix have revamped the brands both in terms of recipes and packaging this year.

Quaker has refocused on its traditional hot range and put £2.2m into advertising and developing new packaging to create a unified look.

Meanwhile, Weetabix has added a chocolate-flavoured version to its Ready Brek brand and introduced an updated version of the Ready Brek glowing man to its packaging.

In stark contrast with the branded market, the own label hot cereals sector grew 5% to account for 32.2% of boxed hot porridge. Experts suggested that this might be because of the sector's lower price points.

Until this year, the total cereals category had been boosted by a consistently strong performance by instant porridge, with the sub-sector generating a 44.3% increase in value sales in 2005, followed by a smaller but still healthy growth of 6.8% in 2006 [TNS].

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