It’s clear to see consumer concern about the rising cost of living is starting to impact the way they spend their money. Communicating value to shoppers will be more important than ever and anything outside of everyday essentials will need to be ‘worth the money’.
Much like in previous periods of economic uncertainty, the ‘lipstick effect’ is taking hold. Rather than big splurges, people are opting for small indulgences, with one in two choosing smaller treats to eat or drink instead and six in 10 saying everyday moments of happiness they can experience is the most common way that they treat and reward themselves (Innova).
We’re seeing this with socialising outside the home; restaurant spending in September 2022 saw a fall of 12.2% (Barclaycard), with special food and drink to prepare and eat from the comfort of our own kitchen becoming a spending priority instead (Innova). This has also seen many shoppers entering the world food aisle looking for exciting dinner options to enjoy with family and friends, that make them feel like they’re eating out.
Aditi Hilgers, Marketing Manager, Old El Paso, comments: “Convenient flavour exploration is driving current market trends and Old El Paso is playing a central role in helping consumers explore and enjoy great quality, informal and simple to prepare feasts. As the No.1 Mexican food brand in World Foods, Old El Paso is performing ahead of the total Mexican category by +2.6PP (Nielsen), and consumers look to us as a signpost for these convenient, on-trend flavours.”
Many shoppers continue to embrace the slower pace of life they enjoyed during the pandemic and are looking to create more meaningful, less formal social occasions. Younger consumers especially are opting for different types of activities with a more select group of friends and family; nearly half of 18–34-year-olds say they have a more condensed friendship circle post-pandemic, and 60% say they appreciate their families more (IGD).
Part of this shift includes staying in for more intimate dinners, games nights or watching sport from the sofa while sharing a delicious meal. Old El Paso recently signed a three-year partnership with the NFL as Official Meal Kit Sponsor to tap into this trend and help the brand become the first choice for consumers thinking about enjoying food over a game.
The ‘Weeknight Family Dinner’ occasion is also becoming more and more mainstream; currently, a maximum of 83.9M consumers are showing interest in this topic, and this total is forecast to grow by 11.9% in the next 1-2 years (MotivBase).
“Old El Paso’s range of Mexican meal kits are perfect to tap into the popularity of all these growing occasions. In just a few simple steps, households can create a super social in-home dining experience, with everyone sharing different fajita or taco fillings,” adds Hilgers. “The portfolio also includes components and accompaniments to help shoppers enjoy a range of easy sides, such as nachos topped with guacamole and with a variety of salsas, we provide the complete ‘Big Night In’ meal solution for all – conveniently delivering taste, simplicity, and excitement.”
In 2021, the category leading Old El Paso Tortilla Pockets™ range was extended with a new Smoky BBQ variant. The product combines the brand’s innovative, first-to-market sealed bottom wraps with its classic and best-selling smoky BBQ flavour profile, the number one in Mexican (Nielsen).
Old El Paso Tortilla Pockets™ as a platform has seen outstanding success to date, hitting £8.8m RSV sales in its first 18 months year (Nielsen). In fact, the brand’s standalone eight-pack of Tortilla Pockets™ was the fastest growing part of its portfolio during the height of the pandemic, demonstrating that shoppers were expanding its usage beyond dinners.
“We fully expected to see this trend emerge, following conversations with more than 2,000 consumers during development of the product,” adds Hilgers. In addition to family meals, we learnt that Old El Paso Tortilla Pockets™ were also great on-the-go, for older consumers who might have limited mobility and even for lunch, with great lunchbox potential.”
Andrey Sokirkin, brand director for cooking sauces at Premier Foods, comments: “The need for affordable, filling, and nutritious food is growing and so is the need for products that help meals go further. Around half of all home cooks are expected to be cooking from scratch more often now than in 2019 (Mintel) and are making smarter swaps to reduce luxuries and additional spending (Kantar), which poses an opportunity for the cooking sauces category. To meet consumers’ desire to recreate the restaurant experience at home and serve up some excitement – but without restaurant prices – retailers should look to Premier Foods and brands like Sharwood’s, Homepride and Loyd Grossman.”
In light of the cost-of-living crisis, people will be looking for ways to make use of all their groceries and reduce waste. According to WRAP UK, 4.5 million tonnes of food goes to waste in the UK each year. Cooking sauces are a versatile and affordable way for consumers to use up ingredients, making them a must stock for retailers.
In light of this, Premier Foods launched its ‘Fresh Take on Food Waste’ campaign to encourage consumers to take simple, easy steps to make leftovers go a little bit further. The company created a microsite with simple recipes based on the food items most commonly found at the back of people’s fridge. Users could select the ingredient they wanted to use up and then pick from a bank of recipes to make at home that have been developed by Premier Foods’ chefs.
Shoppers favour Indian and Chinese cuisines in particular (IRI), which is something that the Sharwood’s range of sauces, pastes and accompaniments can deliver on. Consumers are still keen to stick to brands that they love where they can (Kantar) and as the number one brand in Asian cuisine in the UK, Sharwood’s can offer consumers affordable and convenient scratch cooking solutions.
When it comes to world flavours, Thai and other East Asian cuisines have shown the biggest growth at +43% (IRI) versus four years ago. This category is also seeing growth from consumers choosing to switch from more established cuisines like Italian, Indian and traditional into new and exciting Thai and other East Asian flavours (IRI).
With consumers keen to stick to brands that they love (Kantar), Sharwood’s East Asian sauces are the ideal choice for retailers looking to offer affordable and convenient cooking sauces. Available in eight variants – Thai Sweet Chilli, Thai Red Curry, Japanese Teriyaki, Japanese Katsu, Thai Green Curry, Thai Rendang, Thai Jungle Curry, Thai Massaman Curry – the range helps unlock delicious dining experiences for less skilful cooks who want to prepare and enjoy home-cooked meals with their families.
In addition, the Sharwood’s core Indian range (including Tikka Masala Sauce, Korma Sauce, Balti Sauce, Plain Poppadoms and Mango Chutney) of household favourites are relied on to create a restaurant quality meal at home. Ranging these sauces alongside other ingredients like meats and sides will help to drive basket spend.
“93% of consumers are actively trying to eat healthy some of the time and 63% are attempting this all of the time,” adds Sokirkin. “We have been tracking this trend for a long time with Sharwood’s, Loyd Grossman and Homepride all offering reduced sugar and fat options.”
With the stir fry category presenting 9m occasions (which is equivalent to £5.4M in retail sales value, Kantar), Sharwood’s extended its range of Reduced Sugar Stir Fry sauces with Oyster & Spring Onion, Teriyaki and Hoisin flavours. These additions are set to help retailers meet increased demand for products that cater to health and lifestyle choices around reduced sugar and meat-free diets, particularly in the world cuisine aisle.
Crispin Busk, Founder of Kabuto Noodles, comments: “We are seeing lots of customers get creative during the cost of living crisis and ‘pimping their pots’; adding their own choice on ingredients to our pots to create delicious restaurant quality ramen at home. Food should still be fun and we like to encourage Kabuto customers to get stuck in!”
Kabuto’s mission is to offer customers the most premium, planet-friendly pots possible, bursting with all-natural ingredients and help people to discover new flavours from around the world. The brand has taken a foray into Fusions as it believes this to be the future of flavour. Its current fusion range explores flavours from North India and Mexico.
Kabuto has recently launched Mac n’Cheese in both Sriracha and Original flavour.
“For far too long the instant mac and cheese at the supermarket has meant crunchy pasta, bland sauces and no taste at all, we knew it was time to revitalise and reinvent this delicious dish,” adds Busk. “We’ve nailed noodles and it was time to perfect pot pasta, and we think we’ve smashed it with our new range. Easy peasy Mac and Cheesy is our new direction; we’ve loved blending it with Asian flavours and we can’t wait for the nation’s pasta fans, busy families and possibly even the odd hungover foodie to enjoy our latest range of deliciousness.”
Kabuto’s best selling products by far are its original pots; especially Chicken Ramen and Chilli-Chicken Ramen. The brand recently made its pots 100% vegetarian and lowered the price.
“We know everyone is hot on the environment and lowering their individual impact but B corp certified products are really starting to be recognised and selected by consumers,” says Busk. “We recently received our certification and becoming a B-Corp is a great validation of the ethos we’ve always had at Kabuto, that a company should be about more than just money, but trying to operate in a way that’s good for our staff, customers and planet. We’ve always aimed to be leaders in the competitive world of instant noodles, both in taste as well as environmentally, and now we’ve proved quality instant noodles needn’t cost the earth.”
Bing-yu Lee, General Manager, Kikkoman UK, comments: “Foods from other cultures that transform everyday dishes are becoming more and more popular. We love foods with a hint of spice and ingredients that add a depth of flavour such as soy sauce.”
While we’ve enjoyed Soy Sauce and Teriyaki for some years, they’ve been given an unexpected boost with the growing popularity of Japanese cuisine. This has also been driven by our desire for healthy options combined with rich umami flavours. Soy Sauce and Teriyaki Marinade are a quick and easy step into the world of Japanese flavours, adding an oriental twist to everyday foods. Veganism shows no sign of slowing up and with more plant-based foods on offer there is a growing use of soy and teriyaki sauces to boost flavour. This trend has been reflected in the buoyant Shoyu (Japanese) soy sauce market with Kikkoman performing particularly well against other brands and demonstrating consumers’ willingness to trade up.
We’re expanding our consumption of foods from the East as our appetite for Chinese, Korean and Japanese flavours shows no sign of slowing.
A broad range of foods from the Orient are also becoming more accessible and top chefs are often seen using these foods on TV and in their restaurants, giving consumers a confidence to try new and exotic ingredients at home.
For instance, Japanese foods have become increasingly popular especially with the opening of Japanese style restaurants as well as the introduction of sushi to our lunch repertoire. Supermarkets have helped drive this trend with the opening of sushi bars in-store and the availability of Japanese ingredients from miso paste and yuzu to katsu curry and cooking sake.
Japanese soy sauce, especially Kikkoman, is growing in popularity because its quality is unrivalled and because it is endlessly useful as both a condiment, at table and as a universal seasoning.
“It is inevitable that we will be eating at home more as the cost of living crisis bites,” adds Lee. “We will be experimenting with our favourite cuisines to try and replicate popular dishes in our own kitchens. We saw this during the pandemic when cooking from scratch at home drove sales of foods from across the globe.”
Kikkoman’s top selling product is Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce in the iconic 150ml red top dispenser. It is a product that is instantly recognisable the world over with an unrivalled reputation for quality. This is followed by Kikkoman Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce in 250 ml, then Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce in 250ml and the brand’s fourth biggest seller is Teriyaki Sauce in 250ml.
Kikkoman Naturally Brewed Soy Sauce is the brand leader with a 34.2% value share of the £33M soy sauce market (IRI).
Kikkoman is the driving force behind the long-term success of soy sauce, contributing 73% of value growth over the last five years (IRI).
Kikkoman is also the biggest brand in the market sub sectors, leading the Reduced Salt category with a 46.3% value share and the Tamari Gluten Free Soy Sauce sector with a commanding 64.3% of the market (IRI).
In the Teriyaki market Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce is the number one selling sku accounting for 25.5% of all Teriyaki value sales (IRI).
“The best advice is to stick with the brands that are guaranteed to move quickly, those that have a strong growth record and where there is major support behind the brand,” says Lee.
Chinese New Year starts on 22 January 2023 and marks the biggest marketing opportunity in the Kikkoman calendar. Kikkoman is the only soy sauce brand to consistently support Chinese New Year. This year there will be price promotions running across all Kikkoman skus.
“It would be great to see retailers running more promotions around big dates in the calendar such as Chinese New Year, ensuring relevant brands have a big on and off-shelf presence,” Lee continues.
Kikkoman invests heavily in the brand through retailer specific promotional support and hard-hitting marketing campaigns. Last year Kikkoman ran two above the line campaigns, one early in the year coinciding with Chinese New Year and another in November. Kikkoman is also driving rate of sale through targeted price promotions and product specific activity.
Maria Chong, Managing Director of Lee Kum Kee Europe Limited, comments: “As the cost of living crisis continues, people are dining out less and using home cooking to explore world cuisines that are quick, easy and affordable.”
New research by Lee Kum Kee revealed that 59% of Brits would like to make healthier and more affordable seasonal home-cooked alternatives to eating out / buying takeaways.
However, 53% admit they’re not confident doing so because they simply don’t have the right recipes, techniques or ingredients.
Consumers are looking for high-quality food ingredients and sauces to recreate restaurant-quality dishes, as well as tips on how to use them.
“More consumers are using social media to learn about how authentic ‘world foods’ actually are, which means their standards and demands for authenticity is increasing,” adds Chong. “That’s why it’s so important to highlight the authenticity of sauces like the ones produced by Lee Kum Kee. Authentic brands like Lee Kum Kee are being used by all kinds of influencers on social media, alongside Celebrity Chefs who love to explore ingredients of true flavour and provenance.”
Consumers are also becoming more mindful of what they eat, which has contributed to a significant spike in different diet preferences.
Many of Lee Kum Kee’s sauces cater to special diets. For example, the popular Lee Kum Kee Chiu Chow Chilli Oil, Lee Kum Kee Chilli Garlic Sauce, and Lee Kum Kee Hot Chilli Soy Sauce are all plant-based sauces, which are suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
There’s a growing appetite for seasonal eating too, with 51% of UK adults saying they’d benefit from learning about how seasonality of food can help create fresh, nutritionally balanced meals for less.
The nation’s love for Asian food, in particular, is undisputed. Recent research by Lee Kum Kee states revealed that 60% of Brits said they love Asian food due to the abundance of flavours. 82% eat Asian food once a week or more, with Chow Mein, Sweet & Sour and Special Fried Rice coming in as the UK’s top three dishes. The wide menu varieties and rich food culture of Chinese cuisines offers many choices to consumers.
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