How to win across sweet and savoury snacking
pladis plays a leading role across both sweet and savoury snacking, helping to drive significant growth and incremental new opportunities across total snacking.
Bold new flavours and formats, including Jaffa Cakes Hot Honey, Cheeselets, Mini Cheddars Chipotle & Lime and Flipz, are attracting younger shoppers to the category.
This innovation is also helping pladis drive profitability for its retail and wholesale partners, supported by a repositioned PMP range that meets shoppers’ needs.
Building on this momentum, the company is delivering game-changing NPD across sweet and savoury snacking, combining new additions to everyday favourites with indulgent new products under the successful McVitie’s Signature range to drive further growth.
By offering shoppers exciting new products across areas such as Indulgence, Lunchbox and On the Go, pladis is building new selling opportunities for its retail and wholesale partners.
A best-in-class Summer of Sport campaign for Jacob’s built brand love over the summer, creating momentum designed to carry through into winter, making it one of the most visible brands in snacking over the summer and strengthening its presence beyond the season.
Meanwhile, a new McVitie’s Masterbrand campaign is set to further propel the UK’s #1 best-selling biscuit brand into the nation’s affections and consciousness, reinforcing its credentials across both snacking and confectionery.
This brand-building activity is being complemented by pladis’ investment in wholesale and convenience through the Better Biscuits website, which has helped some retailers grow their biscuit and snacking sales by as much as 20%.
The strength behind that momentum is clear: McVitie’s and Jacob’s are the No.1 masterbrands in Sweet and Savoury Biscuits respectively (Nielsen).
What’s more, McVitie’s is the second most chosen Food & Drink brand overall in the UK (Kantar), giving it a powerful platform to sustain that brand love from summer into winter.
pladis is also the leading driver of growth over the last 2 years, with over +£50m added to the biscuits category through its brands (Nielsen Total Coverage, Total Biscuits, Value Sales Chg vs 2YA, 52w/e 02.05.26).
The company has the largest brand in sweet biscuits across both grocery and convenience. The enduring all-time favourite that is McVitie’s Chocolate Digestives is the UK’s best-selling sweet biscuit (Nielsen Symbols & Independents, Sweet Biscuits, Value Sales 52w/e 02.05.26).
And pladis has 5 of the Top 10 best sellers including the likes of Hobnobs, Jaffa Cakes & Flipz (Nielsen Symbols & Independents, Sweet Biscuits, Value Sales 52w/e 02.05.26).
While pladis is primarily known for its biscuits, it has also established very strong credentials in other categories. Under Jacob’s, Mini Cheddars is a Top 10 Crisps & Savoury Snacks brand, worth £85m (Nielsen Total Coverage, Total Crisps & Snacks, Value Sales, 52w/e 02.05.26) & bought by 1 in 3 UK households (Numerator MyWorldpanel, Household Penetration, 52w/e 19.04.26).
In the last 2 years pladis has also launched into confectionery with the Gold Billions brand, launching a product straight into the Top 5 of all singles within the impulse channel, from a rate of sale perspective (Nielsen Total Impulse (exc Co-op), Adult Singles exc Kingsize, Unit Rate of Sale, 52w/e 27.12.2025).
And the new Signature range, pladis’ most indulgent range yet, is already going strongly following launch.
Wholesale Manager went to Bestway’s West Bromwich depot to ask Olivia Wilson-Shaw, Senior Category Development Manager – pladis UK&I, Chris Brooks, Head of Wholesale – pladis UK&I and Adnan Khan, Operations Manager – Bestway Wholesale for some insights into the category.
To watch the video interviews, go to wholesalemanager.co.uk.
How are the Sweet Biscuits and Savoury Snacks/Crisps & Bagged Snacks categories currently performing?
OW-S, Senior Category Development Manager – pladis UK&I: We are seeing really strong momentum in biscuits and crisps & snacks in the latest 26 weeks, particularly within convenience. The three key trends that are driving this growth are everyday indulgence, innovation and convenience.
What are the biggest trends for Biscuits/Crisps & Bagged Snacks in wholesale?
OW-S: Ultimately, shoppers are looking for a treat and value for money as well. The brands that are delivering both are the ones that are winning.
One great example is Mini Cheddars which is worth £85m and is bought by one in three UK households. McVitie’s and Jacob’s continue to lead the way.
Innovation such as Jaffa Cake Chocolate Digestives, Jaffa Cake Cookies and the new Flipz and Mini Cheddar flavours are all driving customers into the category.
What innovation has pladis introduced this year?
CB: We have had a huge amount of innovation. Our priorities for this year would be Jaffa Cake Chocolate Digestives, which have been a huge success and have seen great rate of sale.
We have also had the two McVitie’s Signature confectionery skus which, from chatting with retailers at trade shows, have been received really well.
Our two new McVitie’s grab packs are perfect for that on-the-go mission. They are great stocked front of store or even by your coffee machines in outlets.
On savoury snacking I would say we have had two big innovations this year. One has been Cheeselets, a new brand under Jacob’s with a tangier, hard hitting flavour, bringing in younger shoppers to the snacking category. The second thing has been our limited edition Chipotle & Lime flavour Mini Cheddars.
What marketing activity has supported pladis’ brands this year?
CB: Over the summer we had our big Summer of Sport campaign, which we ran across Crinkly’s BIG, Mini Cheddars, Cheeselets and Twiglets, bringing that portfolio together, driving a bit of excitement and a bit of theatre, both in depot and in outlet.
This year, we’ve got another multi-million pound above the line campaign with McVitie’s, which will be featured on TV, digital, right through the line in depot and in retail outlets as well, to celebrate those moments that we have together, enjoying a McVitie’s product.
These campaigns are important for driving the saliency of our brand and introduce new shoppers. We are the number one brand in the sweet biscuit category, and we’re the number two picked-up food and drink brand in the UK.
How is your Better Biscuits platform helping wholesalers and their retail customers to get the most out of Sweet & Savoury Snacking?
OW-S: Better Biscuits is all about helping wholesalers and retailers turn insight into action. The platform provides practical guidance on ranging, merchandising and category management, making it easier to drive biscuit sales.
Retailers who have signed up to Better Biscuits have seen an uplift of up to 20% increase in their total biscuit category sales.
Which are pladis’ biggest brands in your business?
AK: In terms of best, I’d say Mini Cheddars because they’ve got a big variety and a big range, and they’re well known to the UK market, and same again with Digestives because their core range is still there. Customers are known for going for the full range now.
Price mark is a point because now we’re in that type of place where customers are struggling to make that pound. So having a price mark on something helps them stick to their budget.
What sort of sales increases can your customers expect to see if they take your category advice?
AK: If retailers take our advice, they’ll find that the customers that come in for a pack of biscuits won’t just be buying a pack of biscuits. They’ll go out and they’ll actually come in and look around the shop, and it’ll entice them to buy more.
We have received a lot of support from pladis, through our pladis rep. Whenever there’s a new product launching, he always advises us to get extra stock in. He’s one of the key factors why pladis does so well in this depot.
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