Shaun Quinton Senior trading manager, proprietary brands Spar UK Central Office Our stores are more for destination top-up as opposed to planned purchase so we tend to do well on standard variants such as Chicken Tonight, Ragú and Uncle Ben's, especially when featured on a national promotion. We are running twice the number of promotions on cook in sauces in the coming year compared with this year because they are a good footfall driver and the volume we can shift is phenomenal. Earlier this year we ran a very aggressive promotion on Chicken Tonight and we experienced an eight-fold volume increase. Also, as a result sales post-promotion have significantly increased. What we are looking to offer is meal solutions where we run not just a promotion on sauce but include associated products such as rice or pasta, or extend the Indian offer to include chutneys or popadoms which can help increase the basket size. These ideas should develop over coming months. We are also trying to grow the category by increasing the purchasing repertoire, encouraging consumers to trade up rather than switch brands. Jars are where the growth is coming from. And the most successful innovation over the last 12 months has been the two step format such as Sizzle & Stir or Uncle Ben's 2-Step. It is putting more value through the till and consumers see it as being more authentic as they feel more involved in the cooking process. Most of the growth tends to be driven by Italian, Oriental and Indian but at some point we will move towards new segments such as Thai, Tex Mex and even South African, but it'll be a few years before they make inroads into standard sauce sales. NPD is vital, while advertising is important in reinforcing consumers' trust in the big brands. {{MARKETING }}

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