Sales: £108.3m -3.1%
Despite the £1.5m launch of fragranced gel candles containing pearls of essential oil that ‘burst as they melt’, sales have melted for Air Wick. It wasn’t just value sales that fell; volumes slipped too, by 2%. Perhaps its new UK National Parks range, launched in January, will help.
Sales: £107.8m -1.3%
Consumer interest in provenance was a key driver for Wiseman in 2013 - particularly for the Black & White brand. Müller Wiseman says sales were especially strong in Central, Southern and Eastern England. However, these gains did not compensate for losses elsewhere.
Sales: £106.4m -5.1 %
McCoy’s entered the frozen potato products sector last summer with Ridge-Cut Round Chips in salted and cheddar & onion flavours. But in the face of a continued strong performance from bagged snack rival Deep Ridged, KP Snacks was unable to freeze declining sales.
Sales: £103.9m 1.8%
Since its launch in May 2009, Rowntree’s Randoms has gone from strength to strength. The past year has been no different, with Rowntree posting value sales growth despite volume sales dipping slightly. The big launch was Randoms Rip’ems, and earlier this year, it launched Sweet N Sour.
Sales: £103.4m +9.6%
Who’d have thought One Direction would boost sales of Twinings tea? The brand had been touting its NPD via social media, but even it was surprised when 1D’s Niall Horan tweeted about his love of its new Lemon & Ginger Infusion, launched last year - and its Twitter feed promptly clocked up an extra 7,300 followers.
A limited edition Niall Horan variant inevitably followed (sent to the man himself and offered in a competition).
More traditional channels under its umbrella Gets You Back To You campaign have also been “hugely successful”, it claims, delivering strong value and even stronger (double-digit) volume growth - although a fall in average price didn’t hurt.
“Shoppers are trading up into premium teas, which are in year-on-year growth,” it says. “And those staying within standard are choosing a better cup of tea.”
With this in mind, Twinings relaunched its Everday range in 2013, rolling out four Everyday Extra ‘teas with benefits’ and three Infusion Sensation teas. Green tea will be a big focus this year, with its new ‘sweet’ range (inspired by tea-time treats to mask green tea’s perceived bitter taste) already hitting stores.
Sales: £103.3m -1.6%
Frozen pizza hasn’t had a great year but category leader Chicago Town has at least kept busy. It added a ‘classic crust’ line to its Takeaway range to sit alongside stuffed crust, and says its latest limited edition, Sloppy Joe, has been a hit with its “heaviest shoppers”, with 57% buying over 10 a year.
87 (88) Irn-Bru
Sales: £103.1m +1.3%
It’s not just the Scots who drink the bru - Barr is enjoying rapid growth south of the border. Overall growth has slowed, however. While there’s been significant promo activity from rivals, Irn-Bru has taken its foot off the gas and volumes have suffered. This year, it’ll launch a lolly.
Sales: £102.5m +6.1%
Kettle Foods blamed a 24% slump in pre-tax profits in 2012 on aggressive promotional tactics in the premium crisps category. It is winning the war, however, with solid value growth last year taking it over the £100m mark. It also recently entered the low-fat baked crisps segment.
Sales: £98.7m -5.3 %
Ginsters rolled out hot food counters to 115 Co-op forecourts at the end of 2013 to cash in on the hot food to go trend, and it’s set to roll out related NPD later this year. It’s also expanded its sandwich range by 50%. But it’s still struggling in the face of growing competition in on-the-go.
Sales: £96.2m +4.1%
Given that everyone from Innocent to posh ambient brand Kabuto has been slurping up sales in the instant noodles category, the market leader has turned in a pretty impressive performance. NPD in the shape of a piri piri variant and TV ads featuring ‘Brian the WAG’ helped.
See the complete list of Britain’s 100 Biggest Grocery Brands
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