Six months on, The Grocer team can breathe a collective sigh of relief as the likes of Walkers' Great British flavours and Maltesers ice cream have clearly demonstrated our eye for banking a home win. However, for every winner, as they say, there is always a loser, but we'll not dwell on how the likes of Tropicana Smoothies and Gordon's Edge have fared just yet. More of them later.
A look at the top of our end of season table shows that Walkers, Dr Oetker and Masterfoods are this year's Premiership pace-setters in the NPD stakes, the Manchester Uniteds of grocery.
Masterfoods' move to put Maltesers into hand-held ice cream was not a startling decision but it has been a very successful one with data from Information Resources showing sales of almost £18m in its first year on shelf. Walkers also cleverly utilised the power of big British brands in the World Cup and Queen's Jubilee year definitely a contender for best simple idea of a year when Britishness was at the forefront of the public psyche.
However, familiarity can't explain Dr Oetker's success because virtually no-one in Britain had ever heard of it or the Ristorante brand prior to the German giant's March 2002 assault on the British market. It spotted a gap in the thin crust frozen pizza market and the figures clearly show that the company's brand has thrived. If it can keep up its current performance then a place in the upper echelons of the frozen pizza category of the next Top Products Survey (December 2003) looks pretty much guaranteed.
Meanwhile, a move into the second tier of top performers (the Blackburn Rovers of this world) shows that McVitie's, Kellogg, Nestlé, Wrigley and Cirio Del Monte can all be satisfied after having had good seasons. Special praise here goes to Nestlé whose Double Cream bar was its first new confectionery brand for five years. The launch has particularly impressed David Jago, editorial director of Mintel's Global New Products Database, who says that he now expects the countline to go a "long, long way" after a good first year on shelf. He adds: "Our research shows that Double Cream was a welcome addition to the confectionery fixture in the views of consumers and retailers."
Solid seasons were also recorded by four more of last year's star products, albeit on a more modest scale than those already featured, making them the Tottenham Hotspurs of this review. Among them is Glanbia, even though sales of less than £100,000 at the cash tills for Tuxford 1780 blue Stilton may not sound too impressive for a dairy giant. However, the considered view is that the newcomer has not done too badly at all. Mintel's Jago says: "It's a niche brand but at least it's selling in some sort of quantity and it's far too early to give in." Glanbia commercial manager David Giles agrees: "The brand is helping us to bring blue Stilton from the back of the fridge to the front of consumers' minds."
Praise also goes to Jeyes for its premium range of Sen'chi air fragrances, particularly as it had to defend itself against the early problem of faulty packaging. But it launched a neat counter-attack to record sales of almost £1m in multiple retailers and drugstores.
However, Fox's Moments, one of The Grocer team's most fancied products, has clearly been caught offside by too many me-too' own label rivals as retailers spotted a good idea and then made it their own.
Even so, Fox's offering has fared considerably better than those products in the last two groups of our review.
Kicking off with the Aston Villas of grocery, special mention in the league survivors' group has to go to Dairy Crest's Argento olive oil-based spread which has barely put a tackle in on Unilever's more established Olivio brand. Strugglers in the lower echelons of the table also include Twinings' Green Tea Selection and Cirio Pasta Sauces which both need to persuade shoppers of their worth, while GSK's Macleans 40+ and SCA's Aroma Velvet are examples of innovative performers whose results have so far failed to match their potential. Last word goes to some suprising names which have found themselves at completely the wrong end of the table. These are the Sunderlands' of our review which failed to even remain on shelf until the end of the season.
Tropicana seemed to have everything necessary to make a splash in the flourishing smoothie market, but failed to make an impact. Findus' Feeling Great frozen Soup a' Meal concept was also given the shoulder by consumers, as was Gordon's Edge from Diageo as the ready-to-drink brand failed to win over new supporters for the gin fixture. Nestlé Purina's withdrawal of Winalot Simply Fresh was the real surprise, though. The star here Tetra Pak's heat-treated Tetra Recart cartons was the format rather than its contents, and Nestlé Purina launched here only after six months of successful test marketing in Italy.
{{ANALYSIS }}
A look at the top of our end of season table shows that Walkers, Dr Oetker and Masterfoods are this year's Premiership pace-setters in the NPD stakes, the Manchester Uniteds of grocery.
Masterfoods' move to put Maltesers into hand-held ice cream was not a startling decision but it has been a very successful one with data from Information Resources showing sales of almost £18m in its first year on shelf. Walkers also cleverly utilised the power of big British brands in the World Cup and Queen's Jubilee year definitely a contender for best simple idea of a year when Britishness was at the forefront of the public psyche.
However, familiarity can't explain Dr Oetker's success because virtually no-one in Britain had ever heard of it or the Ristorante brand prior to the German giant's March 2002 assault on the British market. It spotted a gap in the thin crust frozen pizza market and the figures clearly show that the company's brand has thrived. If it can keep up its current performance then a place in the upper echelons of the frozen pizza category of the next Top Products Survey (December 2003) looks pretty much guaranteed.
Meanwhile, a move into the second tier of top performers (the Blackburn Rovers of this world) shows that McVitie's, Kellogg, Nestlé, Wrigley and Cirio Del Monte can all be satisfied after having had good seasons. Special praise here goes to Nestlé whose Double Cream bar was its first new confectionery brand for five years. The launch has particularly impressed David Jago, editorial director of Mintel's Global New Products Database, who says that he now expects the countline to go a "long, long way" after a good first year on shelf. He adds: "Our research shows that Double Cream was a welcome addition to the confectionery fixture in the views of consumers and retailers."
Solid seasons were also recorded by four more of last year's star products, albeit on a more modest scale than those already featured, making them the Tottenham Hotspurs of this review. Among them is Glanbia, even though sales of less than £100,000 at the cash tills for Tuxford 1780 blue Stilton may not sound too impressive for a dairy giant. However, the considered view is that the newcomer has not done too badly at all. Mintel's Jago says: "It's a niche brand but at least it's selling in some sort of quantity and it's far too early to give in." Glanbia commercial manager David Giles agrees: "The brand is helping us to bring blue Stilton from the back of the fridge to the front of consumers' minds."
Praise also goes to Jeyes for its premium range of Sen'chi air fragrances, particularly as it had to defend itself against the early problem of faulty packaging. But it launched a neat counter-attack to record sales of almost £1m in multiple retailers and drugstores.
However, Fox's Moments, one of The Grocer team's most fancied products, has clearly been caught offside by too many me-too' own label rivals as retailers spotted a good idea and then made it their own.
Even so, Fox's offering has fared considerably better than those products in the last two groups of our review.
Kicking off with the Aston Villas of grocery, special mention in the league survivors' group has to go to Dairy Crest's Argento olive oil-based spread which has barely put a tackle in on Unilever's more established Olivio brand. Strugglers in the lower echelons of the table also include Twinings' Green Tea Selection and Cirio Pasta Sauces which both need to persuade shoppers of their worth, while GSK's Macleans 40+ and SCA's Aroma Velvet are examples of innovative performers whose results have so far failed to match their potential. Last word goes to some suprising names which have found themselves at completely the wrong end of the table. These are the Sunderlands' of our review which failed to even remain on shelf until the end of the season.
Tropicana seemed to have everything necessary to make a splash in the flourishing smoothie market, but failed to make an impact. Findus' Feeling Great frozen Soup a' Meal concept was also given the shoulder by consumers, as was Gordon's Edge from Diageo as the ready-to-drink brand failed to win over new supporters for the gin fixture. Nestlé Purina's withdrawal of Winalot Simply Fresh was the real surprise, though. The star here Tetra Pak's heat-treated Tetra Recart cartons was the format rather than its contents, and Nestlé Purina launched here only after six months of successful test marketing in Italy.
{{ANALYSIS }}
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