Food and Drink Brands Dominate Product of the Year 2020
Premier Foods, Coca-Cola, Kellogg’s all picked up multiple awards at the 2020 Product of the Year competition. Rewarding the year’s most innovative products with the winners chosen by more than 10,000 consumers, Product of the Year is the UK’s biggest survey of product innovation and widely recognised as one of the industry’s most influential awards.
Conducted in association with Kantar, the world’s leading research group, the winners represent key consumer wants and changing habits – a unique barometer of consumer behaviour and current trends.
The future is healthy
Health and well-being products look set to dominate the supermarket shelves with a number of healthy eating products named Product of the Year including: Kellogg’s W. K. Kellogg vegan-friendly Plant Protein cereal; Richmond’s first-ever meat-free sausage; NESCAFÉ Gold’s dairy alternative lattes and Optimum’s Rocky Road protein bar.
And it is a trend reiterated by research conducted by Product of the Year in November last year with more than one-third of UK consumers (35%) stating that they are more likely to choose products that have a positive impact on their health and well-being.
And the living is easy…
With increasingly busy lives, ‘ease of use’ is a primary determining factor in consumers choosing one product over another with a number of food and drinks brands rising to the challenge and scooping a coveted Product of the Year award in the process:
Premier Foods has come up with an ingenious Sharwood’s Katsu Curry Wrap Kit; KraftHeinz have shifted from can to pouch with their innovative Creationz range; leading wine producer Concha y Toro have brought O’jos to the market – a portion controlled spritz-style wine drink in a can and Arla Food’s have listened to the concerns of the consumer regarding ease of use and have introduced the Lurpak Butterbox.
“Lurpak Butterbox was a real labour of love for us to develop, taking several years to find an alternative to the traditional foil wrap,” explains Stuart Ibberson, Senior Director for butter and spreads at Arla Foods. “With limited innovation in the category for 60 years, it was time to give shoppers something new to counteract the frustrations of messy packaging. Being crowned the winner in the dairy category is Arla’s fifth successive triumph at the Product of the Year awards and even more special for us to win as it’s voted for by consumers. We are hugely proud to continue bringing new products and innovations to lead the way in dairy and meet ongoing demands of the public.”
Premier Foods, one of the UK’s largest listed food companies is this year’s biggest winner taking home six awards including: Cadbury Dairy Milk Slices; Loyd Grossman Pasta Pots Range and Mr Kipling Reduced Sugar Slices.
Reacting to the multiple wins, Yilmaz Erceyes, Chief Marketing Office at Premier Foods, says: “It has been a very successful year for Premier Foods at the Product of the Year awards. Our six awards for some of our most iconic brands underpins the quality and breadth of the products available across our portfolio. Many of our brands have been household staples for generations and we are dedicated to constantly innovating with new products that excite shoppers and suit changing consumer trends. To have six of our new launches named as ‘Product of the Year’ in their respective categories is great recognition for the hard work of our teams. Being able to add the highly recognisable Product of the Year logo to our products offers additional validation to the care we take in creating top quality brands that people love.”
Commenting on Coca-Cola’s multiple wins, Kris Robbens, GB & Ireland Marketing director, says: “Innovation is at the very heart of what we do and who we are and we are thrilled to have scored the Product of the Year 2020 hat-trick! We are immensely proud of the three winning products and being voted for by the UK consumer makes it particularly special.”
As well as taking home the much-coveted Product of the Year trophy, the winners also have the right to display the iconic red logo which is responsible for an increase in sales from between 10 and 15%.
“Innovation is often about those smart, small incremental improvements that have a disproportionately big impact on our lives,” says Mike Nolan, CEO at Product of the Year. “All of the 2020 Product of the Year winners are boldly treading new ground, pushing the edges to help shape a future that is healthier, more responsible and just that little bit easier – innovations that are a direct response to the needs of today’s consumer. Congratulations to all the winners.”
Full list of 2020 Product of the Year winners across 44 categories:
Bladder Weakness, Always Discreet Liners to Go, Procter & Gamble
Baby & Toddler Meals, Cow & Gate First Spoons Carrot, Danone Specialised Nutrition
Baby Cereal, Cow & Gate Banana Wholegrain Porridge with Buckwheat, Danone Specialised Nutrition
Cakes & Biscuits, Cadbury Dairy Milk Slices, Premier Foods
Cat Food, Whiskas Pure Delight, Mars Petcare Ltd
Cereal, W.K.Kellogg Plant Protein, Kellogg’s
Coffee, NESCAFÉ Azera Coffee Bags, Nestlé UK
Coffee pods, Costa Coffee Signature Blend Lungo Nespresso® Pod, All About Food Ltd
Convenience Food, Heinz Creationz, Kraft Heinz
Dairy, Lurpak Butterbox, Arla Foods
Dairy Alternatives, NESCAFÉ Gold Dairy Alternative Lattes, Nestlé UK
Dog Food, Harringtons Just 6, Inspired Pet Nutrition
E-Cigarette, Vype ePod, British American Tobacco
Feminine Care, Always Ultra InstantDry, Procter & Gamble
Flavouring & Seasoning, Paxo Bake in a Tray Stuffing, Premier Foods
Food Kit, Sharwood’s Katsu Curry Wrap Kits, Premier Foods
Formula Powder, Cow & Gate Growing Up Milk Powder, Danone Specialised Nutrition
Formula RTD, Aptamil Follow-On Milk Advanced Liquid with Pronutra, Danone Specialised Nutrition
General Cleaning, Cif ecorefill range, Unilever
General Household, Astonish Oven & Grill Cleaner & Sponge, Astonish
Health & Beauty, Bio-Oil Dry Skin Gel, Omega Pharma
Health Nutrition, Optimum Rocky Road Protein Bar, Glanbia Performance Nutrition
Healthy Drinks, Honest Classic & Pink Lemonade, Coca-Cola
Household Paper, Plenty Hand Towels, Essity Hygiene Products UK Ltd
Hybrid Mattress, Simba Hybrid® Mattress, Simba Sleep
Indulgent Treat, M&M’s Bars, Mars Wrigley
Kids Food, White Choc Coco Pops, Kellogg’s
Laundry Additives, Vanish Gold Stain Oxi Action Removal Gel, Reckitt Benckiser
Laundry Detergent, Surf Coconut Bliss Liquid Detergent, Unilever
Mattress, Casper Essential Mattress, Casper
Meat Free, Richmond Meat-Free Sausages, Kerry Foods
Men’s Razor, Gillette SkinGuard Sensitive Razor, Procter & Gamble
Sauce, Loyd Grossman No Added Sugar Bolognese, Premier Foods
Snack Pot, Loyd Grossman Pasta Italia Pots Range, Premier Foods
Snacks, Mr Kipling Reduced Sugar Slices, Premier Foods
Sparkling Wine, O’jos Spritz, Concha y Toro
Teeth Whitening Kits & Strips, Wisdom Intense White Teeth Whitening Strips, Wisdom Toothbrush
Ltd
Toilet Tissue, Cushelle Ultra Quilted, Essity Hygiene Products UK Ltd
Toothpaste, Oral-B Gumline Purify Toothpaste, Procter & Gamble
Water, Aquarius Lemon & Aquarius Lime, Coca-Cola
Whitening Toothpaste, Oral-B 3D White Luxe Blast Toothpaste, Procter & Gamble
Wipes, Cheeky Panda Wipes, The Cheeky Panda
Women’s Razor, Venus Extra Smooth Sensitive, Procter & Gamble
Zero – No Sugar Drink, Diet Coke Twisted Strawberry and Exotic Mango, Coca-Cola.
