Britain’s Baby Food and Products Market
Mintel has celebrated the royal birth with a portrait of Britain’s baby food and products market – giving insight into some of the consumer segments William and Kate will be actively involved with in the coming months.
Within the British baby food and drink market some nine in ten (89%) parents in Britain with a child aged 0-4-years feed them homemade food – with those in the South West and Wales (95%) and the North West and Scotland (81%) most likely to do so. Furthermore, 66% of parents claim to trust homemade baby or toddler food over manufactured baby food.
One in five (20%) British parents let their baby choose what they want to eat. More Mums than dads let their babies choose what they want to eat (22% vs. 18%).
The UK baby food, drink and milk market recorded a 53% leap in value sales between 2007 and 2012 to reach £617 million, up from £403 million in 2007.
Baby milk is the largest sector of the UK baby food and drink market, standing at £359 million in 2012, accounting for 58% of the total market share. This compares to wet and dry baby food at 31% (£193 million), and Baby Finger Food at 9% (£53 million).
Lifestyles of Mums and Dads
* Parents of children under the age of 5 in Britain are the most likely to ‘like’ a brand on social networking site Facebook in order to get a discount – more than one in five (22%) claim to do so, compared to an average of 14%.
* Online advice clicks – over one in ten (13%) mums of children aged 0-18 say they turn to blogs and websites for parenting advice every day or at least weekly – with a further one in five (19%) claiming to do so at least monthly.
* Some 5% of the nation’s mums say that they turn to sales assistants for advice every day or at least once a week – the same number who say that they turn to medical professionals (5% every day or at least weekly).
* Over half (54%) of dads in the UK think that parents should equally share responsibilities for raising their children.
* Some 6% of dads ask their parents for advice on raising children on a monthly basis and up to 15% of them do so on a daily or weekly basis.
Product Innovation
According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, the number of prestige babies’ and children’s personal care products increased by 36% since 2010 making up 19% of total new launches in 2012.
