While the last year has been a tough one for foodservice-focused wholesalers due to lockdown restrictions, retail has done better with more people shopping local.
As lockdown restrictions ease, wholesalers will want to stock up on the proven sellers in foodservice, like premium crisps.
Those wholesalers focused on retail are advised to provide a broad range of sharing and impulse crisps and snacks.
Matt Smith, Marketing Director, Tayto Group, tells Wholesale Manager why the crisps and snacks market will grow over the next five years and how the category should be merchandised in-depot.
What do you suggest is the best way to lay out the crisps and snacks section in-depot?
Some suppliers believe in need state, shopping mission and occasion, some suggest brand blocking by manufacturer.
It’s all about making it easy for your time-pressed customer. Wholesalers should stock different snack ranges by sector – a Retail range (which is focused on big brands and value) and a Hospitality range (that is more premium and in formats tailored to the sector – e.g. pubcards).
Retail is all about shopper mission. The Convenience shopper is only in store for a few specific items so stock a range that addresses this.
Focus on the key missions.
• Entry-point snacks – our Fun Snacks range (that includes Tangy Toms, Spicy Bikers, Awesome Oinks, Quarterbacks and Cheesy Snakes) has grown strongly due to offering great value for money with a 30p/2 for 50p PMP. 30p PMPs have had a phenomenal year – growing faster than the market (82.8% vs 6.4%).
• £1 sharing snacks – growing three times faster than the market and now accounting for 39% of Snacks.
• The Pub@Home – pork scratchings have become the star of the home bar, so ensure you have scratchings clipstrips in the snacks aisle as these allow your retailers to merchandise scratchings with BWS.
• Impulse range – be prepared for your customers’ FTG purchases as we return to ‘normal’.
PMPs are vital to demonstrate value for money in convenience stores. Site this range adjacent to other impulse categories such as soft drinks, confectionery and retail BWS.
Ensure big brands and challenger brands are available. Challenger brands usually offer stronger margins for retailers and wholesalers – so give your customers a range of branded options.
Hospitality (including Foodservice or Licensed) are all about a more premium range, often with specialist brands not available in supermarkets, in order to command a premium price.
Site your snacks range with BWS to make it easy to grab everything in one place.
• Site snacks pubcards (e.g. pork scratchings) together on ‘prongs’ next to main BWS section.
• Stock premium crisps (e.g. REAL Handcooked) adjacent to BWS. Given most people either have no idea what they pay for snacks, or expect to pay over £1 a pack, venues can easily make over 50p profit on each bag of premium crisps or scratchings they sell.
Do you have targets for 2021 in terms of increasing category penetration or driving purchase frequency higher?
As the market leaders in pork snacks and owners of the UK’s top 3 pork brands – Mr Porky, Midland Snacks and Real Pork Co., Tayto are driving growth by refreshing the whole range with better on-shelf stand out and through new formats (like clip-strips which will help retailers capture incremental impulse sales without taking up valuable shelf space). We are also investing in the biggest ever campaign for pork scratchings with the strapline “There’s no matching a scratching”. Aimed at engaging both new and lapsed consumers, the campaign sets out to hero the unique appeal of scratchings and how other snacks just don’t come up to scratch.
Having heard the Hospitality sector’s concerns about the cost of re-stocking, Tayto has lined up a range of aggressive promotional offers across our market-leading pork scratchings (Midland Snacks and Mr Porky) as well as premium REAL Handcooked crisps over the coming months, that will enable venues to stock up for less on a proven range of bar snacks.
In addition to strong price promotions on our premium REAL Handcooked Crisps, our top-selling flavours of REAL Handcooked crisps will be available in mixed cases for a limited period. These flavours have been developed specifically for licensed venues and each box includes a Great Taste award-winning flavour.
Visibility is vital. So to help maximise your sales of premium crisps, we have FREE POS available at realcrisps.com/trade
Golden Wonder will continue to offer ‘great branded value’ – enabling convenience retailers to offer great consumer value and thereby, encouraging more people to pick up snacks in Convenience.
Do you support wholesalers with activities such as trade days or samplings in depots?
Given Tayto over-trades in Wholesale with both Golden Wonder and our pork brands, we have a team dedicated to support the sector – ensuring that we have a strong promotional plan through all the major wholesalers. We are also itching to get back into depots to support trade days and sampling. That said, given the move to wholesale customers shopping online, we have all the capabilities to deliver impactful digital promotions.
Does Tayto have a van sales business?
We believe in focusing on what we’re experts at – making great-tasting snacks that consumers love and providing strong margins to wholesalers and their customers. We work in partnership with trusted distributors who are experts in what they do – delivering our snacks to our customers’ doors, whether that be independent retailers, pubs, cafes or other hospitality venues.
Do you use digital platforms to support and advise wholesalers?
We have increased our use of digital activity but we’re also keen to maintain the direct contact between our dedicated wholesale channel team and their contacts – both centrally and at depot level. Nothing beats the personal touch, and we will be back in depots as soon as we’re able to be.
Do you forecast the crisps and snacks market to grow over the next five years?
Definitely. Whilst it’s a mature market, we are a nation of snackers.
It’s been a really challenging year for foodservice-focused operations due to lockdown restrictions and hospitality closures. Retail has had a much better year with Convenience benefitting as people have looked to ‘shop local’.
As we emerge from lockdown, we have no doubt that both the hospitality sector and impulse sales will see good growth. As the sector re-opens, it’s essential to stock up on proven sellers in foodservice – pubcards and premium crisps (like our REAL Crisps). Given 80% of pork snacks are consumed with a drink, stocking pork scratchings for pubs is a must.
Retail-focused wholesalers mustn’t be caught out either as people venture out more and as they start welcoming people back into their homes. Wholesalers need to be stocking a broad range of sharing and impulse crisps and snacks – and encourage retailers to consider meal deals to drive basket spend.
The brands that will always win will be those that best meet consumer needs:
Taste – always the No. 1 reason!
• Golden Wonder delivers this through its range of fully flavoured snacks.
• REAL premium handcooked crisps is a foodservice exclusive range tailored to the licensed trade with punchy flavours designed to complement drinks.
• Mr Porky and Midland Snacks Handcooked pork scratchings – the ultimate pub snack enjoyed as much at home now as in the pub.
Value – Golden Wonder – as always – delivers great branded value and will continue to do so through PMP packs that give shoppers assured value and retailers strong POR.
Premium experience – particularly in the Hospitality sector, people are prepared to pay more for premium priced products like REAL Handcooked crisps and pork scratchings, especially in foodservice, so these can really drive profits.
Health – the crisps and snacks market is facing significant regulatory changes in the next few years including restrictions on promotions and advertising, as well as the next wave of reformulation to meet lower salt targets. This will raise, further in consumer’s minds, a desire for ‘smarter snacking’ – to look for products that are lower in calories, fat and salt. However, most consumers are unwilling to compromise on taste and so any snack has to be ‘worth the calories’ and not taste like cardboard! A great example of a snack success is Golden Wonder Ringos, which has seen phenomenal growth by delivering a fully flavoured snack with less than 100 calories per serving.
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