Instances of brands getting one up on own label are few and far between in this report. Not here: savoury pastry brands are up £16.6m (4.9%) on units up 2.2%. That’s an extra 5.8 million branded pies, slices and pasties sold. Own label, by contrast, is flat.
This is because brands are introducing new consumers to the delights of pastry with innovative recipes, formats and brand identities. Meanwhile, own label is largely sticking to fare favoured by older consumers, such as steak & kidney and beef & onion.
Take market leader Ginsters. It was responsible for the year’s greatest gain - £6.4m (7.2%) on units up 5.2% - amid a flurry of NPD and a summer relaunch to trumpet quality of ingredients as well as the brand’s Cornish roots and increasingly culinary recipes.
“The largest NPD in savoury pastries came with the launch of Ginsters Chicken & Bacon slice, achieving £1.6m since February,” says Nielsen senior client manager Scott Rowley.
The brand has also teamed up with Michelin-starred chef Chris Eden to develop Moroccan Veg and Cheese & Onion Pasties and low-calorie Piri Piri and Katsu Chicken Slices. All of which hope to tackle consumer preconceptions that savoury pastries can be bland, unhealthy and inferior quality.
“It’s a case of changing mindsets, proving our premium credentials and demonstrating that we’re driving new levels of innovation,” says Ginsters MD Kieran Hemsworth. “To broaden our appeal, the lower-calorie slices were made for younger, health-conscious consumers.”
Ginsters isn’t alone in going after this crowd. Pukka Pies has overtaken Higgidy to become the market’s third biggest brand, thanks to the extra million, primarily younger, consumers it says it’s attracted through a relaunch and wave of NPD.
“Over 70% of pie shoppers are post-family and living in one or two-member households, but when I look at our profiling compared to the wider category, it’s clear that we’re over indexing on younger consumers,” says Pukka category controller Sarah Reedman.
The brand says 4% of its consumers are under 28, versus own label’s average of 2.9%. It expects that figure to continue rising as distribution for lines such as its Veggie Masala and Leek & Potato grows.
“Vegetarian options tend to appeal to younger shoppers, but in the past they’ve tended to be very premium,” explains Reedman. “Our lower price point is making it more mainstream. We’ve doubled distribution in Tesco with Tesco Express a new addition. We’ve also significantly increased our footprint across Sainsbury’s Locals.”
Note the emphasis on convenience retailers. As well as a growing focus on young families with the development of products such as Pukka’s first frozen range, brands are going after the on-the-go occasion. It makes sense, given the dent the hot summer made on evening meal consumption.
“Food-to-go is starting to become a real growth area for us and we’ve recently launched with WH Smith,” says Mark Chapman, MD of Higgidy, which is up £2.2m (7.8%) on units up 6%. “People are eating more on the go but they don’t want to compromise on quality.”
Again, meat is conspicuous in its absence in many of Higgidy’s new recipes, which include Spinach & Feta Tartine, Spanakopita Veggie Rolls and a Paneer, Coconut & Spiced Chick Pea Pie. Chapman says veggie dishes inspired by far-flung cuisines are a major draw for younger consumers and crucial for the future health of the category.
“A whole new band of shoppers are looking for something fresh and different,” Chapman adds. “The growth of our vegetarian products outpaces everything else. Almost 70% of what we make is vegetarian and this year we launched our first vegan line.”
The classics still have a place, however. While some traditional brands such as Wall’s, Peter’s and Pork Farms are all in decline, 10th- placed brand Welsh Pantry has seen sales more than double to £7.6m, thanks largely to the April launch of a quiche line that has since racked up £1.2m at the tills. Eleventh-placed Holland’s, meanwhile, is up 4.7% to £6.4m.
It’s pushing for a greater slice of the pies market with the launch of the premium Best Ever range, which rolled into the big four and The Co-op in the autumn, following consumer research that revealed an appetite for a greater amount of filling.
“Our loyal customers asked for more of our famous fillings, and we listened,” says chief ‘pieologist’ Helen Henry.
Similar premiumisation is taking place in meat snacks. Market leader Peperami has suffered a 1.3% dip to £60.3m as unit sales plunged 13%, while pricier jerky and biltong brands are delivering strong growth.
Take Jack Link’s, the namesake brand of the US manufacturer that bought Peperami from Unilever back in 2014. Sales have almost doubled, with the Link’s brand putting an extra £1.2m through the tills in the past year. This, says marketing manager Pavan Chandra, is being driven by a shift towards high-protein snacks perceived as healthier.
“Meat snacks have an increasing appeal with health-conscious shoppers,” he says. Plus the “inherent protein benefits” of products such as its new biltong means it can charge almost three times more than crisps per serving.
With an average price of £1.68 per pack versus a market average of £1.25, the case for using meat snacks such as Link’s to drive value is clear. But there’s a new breed of snacks charging an even greater premium.
Taste Inc, for example, has hit sales of £2.4m in spite of an average price of £2 a pack. Gourmet brand The Curators, which fetches a similar amount per pack, is picking up new listings for its flavoured jerkies, which include espresso and Korean BBQ lines.
Co-founder Ed Hauck expects the market to continue to premiumise. “Meat is an emotive discretionary spend for many people,” he says. “Why should snacks be any different? There are a lot of parallels with craft beer, where the trend is towards less volume but better quality. We expect to see the same in this market.”
TOP LAUNCH
Kings Flexitarian Snacks, Kings Elite
Meat is feeling the heat as more and more consumers embrace flexitarianism. So this launch from Kings Elite makes perfect sense. The flexitarian range of protein bites comprises a free-range chicken variant, alongside veggie and vegan versions made with vegetable protein. Expect more to come from Kings Elite. In September the brand – founded by rugby stars Mike Tindell and Mark and James Simpson-Daniel – was bought for more than £20m by Australian tycoon Tony Quinn.
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