UK Biscuit Market Worth £2.2 Billion
With sales of biscuits, cookies and crackers having increased 22% over the past five years to reach a delicious £2.2 billion in 2010, Mintel forecasts that the UK biscuit market will grow a further 15% to reach £2.6 billion by 2015.
Mintel estimates the biscuits, cookies and crackers market will grow by 2.7% this year to reach £2.3 billion in 2011. Sweet biscuits continue to dominate the sector and are forecast to represent 83% of the market in 2011.
The ritualistic nature of eating biscuits appeals to consumers, with over half (54%) eating sweet biscuits with a hot drink, demonstrating how ingrained this occasion is within British culture but emphasising the need for the category to expand beyond the tea-drinking audience.
With snack/individual packs appealing most to the 16-24s for sweet biscuits and 25-34s for savoury, packaging innovation such as Fox’s Party Rings (six 25g bags per pack) and Ryvita’s Crackers for Cheese (which comes in four packs of six) is helping to attract a younger consumer base.
“The UK biscuit industry has benefited from consumers reaching for the biscuit barrel throughout the recession, although rising commodity costs and an inability to appeal to a younger and more discerning consumer base are threatening the market,” says Amy Lloyd, senior food & drink analyst at Mintel.
Advertising campaigns that focus on quality and taste in order to fend off competition from own-label, should find favour with the third of consumers that believe that branded sweet and savoury biscuits actually taste better, Mintel points out.
However, consumers are willing to experiment with flavour, particularly women, therefore new flavour variants need to appeal to this demographic who are more likely to be buying sweet and savoury biscuits and who most enjoy experimenting with new variants.
According to Mintel, products with a healthy eating message, such as low-calorie or high-fibre, can be used to tap into the 37% of consumers who are cutting down on the amount of sweet biscuits they eat because of health reasons and the 26% of consumers who buy low-salt/wholemeal/high-fibre varieties of savoury biscuit.
Savoury biscuits should do more to push cross category promotion with complementary products such as cheese and particularly British cheese (which has seen growing popularity), maximising on the current trend towards all things British.
