Coca-Cola top brand in Irish grocery for ninth year in a row
Coca-Cola is the biggest selling brand in the Irish grocery sector for the ninth year in a row, according to the Checkout Top 100 brands report, produced by Checkout magazine in association with Nielsen.
It’s followed by milk brand Avonmore, Brennan’s bread in third place and Lucozade fourth.
In fifth place, Cadbury Dairy Milk is the first new entry to the top five since 2009, knocking crisp brand Tayto down one place to 6th. The rest of the brands in the top ten are 7Up, Jacobs, Walkers and Danone.
Stephen Wynne-Jones, editor, Checkout, said: “For many of Ireland’s leading brands, the focus is not only on growing market share, but also on how to retain their brand equity in an increasingly crowded and value-hungry marketplace.
“Ireland’s most successful brands, as outlined in the Checkout Top 100, have managed to strike that balance; offering value, innovation and new product development to consumers, while also reinforcing their unique brand qualities.”
According to Maureen Mooney, commercial director, Nielsen, while big brands traditionally rely on advertising to communicate their brand identity, those at the top increasingly need to be savvier with how they engage with consumers.
“Ad spend is a major part of the success of many brands, but if you look at the overall market, ad spend in traditional media has declined a little bit,” she explains. “The brands that have been most successful are the ones that have continued to maintain spend, but have also combined that with promotions, new product development and in-store engagement.”
The grocery category represented most in the Checkout Top 100 Brands is confectionery, with a total of 12 confectionery brands featured in the list including Galaxy (36th), Nestlé KitKat (49th) and Haribo (53rd).
Big movers in this year’s ranking include Innocent, with its juice range rising 23 places since last year to sit in 30th position, one spot behind its closest rival, Tropicana.
Yoghurt brand Muller rises six places to 20th, with Glenisk, another popular yoghurt brand, rising 13 places to 39th. Interestingly, while Muller and Glenisk both posted gains, Danone, the leading brand in the category, dropped two places, to 10th.
“When weighing up leading brands’ performance, it’s important to note that it’s not all about price,” said Mooney. “Premium products are selling very well in certain categories. For example, the yoghurt category is actually declining, but luxury yoghurt is growing by 9pc. For brands competing in that marketplace, you have to be able to hit all those consumer touchpoints.”
The growth in sales of retailer own-brand products has also impacted sales, particularly in certain categories, such as milk.
Nielsen estimates that 47.3pc of sales in the milk category are own-brand, compared to an industry average of 21.9pc.
While Avonmore retains 2nd position in the Top 100, there have been drops for Premier milk (down nine to 57th) and Connacht Gold milk (down 14 to 97th). Dawn milk, last year’s 88th biggest selling brand, falls out of the Top 100 altogether.
