focus on... rice & noodles
42 | The Grocer | 10 August 2019 Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 10 August 2019 | The Grocer | PB
● Promotions have
typically been a huge sales
driver in rice and noodles.
But they are falling. “The
6.4% decline in sales on
deal is happening due to
removal of volume-based
promotions,” says Kantar
analyst Bianca Draghici.
“Volume deals have shown
31.3% decline, which is
£11.2m less than last year.”
● However, that isn’t
deterring shoppers, who
have bolstered the category
by 3.7% to £571.6m. That
equates to an extra £20m.
“The main reason for
growth is that shoppers
have been purchasing a lot
more o en,” says Draghici.
“That’s increased 3.7% to
13.4 trips per year.”
● Savoury noodles were
the fastest-growing sub-
category of the past
year, boasting an £8.1m
gain. “That was mainly
driven by new shoppers,
with an 8.2% increase in
penetration and 854k newhouseholds,” says Draghici.
● Another area of
particular growth was own
label, up 7.7% to £258.5m.
Again, this is down to
more frequent purchases.
Shoppers make nine trips
per year on average, an
increase of 5%.
● Pouch rice is the biggest
driver of own label growth
with a 14.5% increase,
equating to an extra £9.5m.Promotions fall: rice and noodles value sales
Kantar’s Worldpanel FMCG service monitors consumer behaviour across Great Britain. Its primary panel tracks
take-home purchases of 30,000 demographically representative households. Data on consumption habits,
nutrition and out of home sales is collected through subsidiary panels. Visit kantarworldpanel.com for details.Promotional activity
Source: Kantar 52 w/e 21 April 2019 For the full data, visit thegrocer.co.ukNot on promotion
.m
(▲ 9.2%)On promotion
.m
(▼ 6.4%)Plain noodles
.m
(▲ 7. 8 %)Chilled savoury rice
. m
(▲ 3.6%)Bulk plain rice
m
(▲ 13.6%)Pouch rice
. m
(▲ 0%)Plain rice
. m
(▲ 4%)Savoury noodles
.m
(▲ 13.3%)“ Consumers are weighing
up the convenience of
pouches versus otherfactors”
which is made from multilaminate mate-
rials that can’t be separated. It’s something
that Mars Food, owner of Britain’s biggest rice
brand Uncle Ben’s, is working on. It wants to
make all its packaging recyclable by 2025.
But, given that the 119.1 million unrecyclable
pouches Uncle Ben’s shi ed last year [Nielsen
52 w/e 15 June 2019] would have eventually
ended up in land ll or worse, 2025 still seems
a long way o .
“That’s why we are working hard to get a
recyclable pouch on to the market as soon as
we possibly can,” says Mars consumer & mar-
kets insight manager Liz Forristal. “But what
we’re seeing at the moment is quite strong
penetration growth still coming through.
Consumers are weighing up the convenience
of pouches versus other factors. They’re not
yet voting with their feet.”Convenience is king
Indeed, pouch rice is the UK’s bestselling rice
format, now worth a whopping £216.3m. It
was also one of the fastest-growing categories
by volume in the past year, up 4.5%.
By contrast, plain rice is only up 1.4% in
volume, with value boosted by price rises.
That non-microwaveable rice tends to be
more eco-friendly – Laila, for example, has
rolled out 100% recyclable packaging across
its entire range of smaller rice bags – doesn’t
seem to be in uencing consumers.
Nielsen gures back up that point. More
than 81% of consumers bought rice products
in the year to 15 June, a marginal rise of 0.9%.
Fi y seven per cent bought ready-to-heat rice,
up a more signi cant 1.8%. So, the appeal
of pouched rice – particularly that it’s ready
to eat a er two minutes in the microwave –
seems to be outweighing the negatives.
That quick appeal is one reason rice is
outperforming other carbs. “Rice is still a
growing part of the UK diet and doing well
compared with other staples such as bread,
potatoes or pasta, which are seeing declining
volumes,” says Alex Waugh, secretary of the
Rice Association.
Plus, he sees a culinary reason behind the
boom. “It ts well with consumer demand for
food nostalgia – of revisiting dishes of their
childhood such as chilli con carne – along-
side a desire to be experimental with food and
trying authentic dishes such as bibimbap.”
The rising popularity of this Korean dish- usually served in a bowl containing