Scottish brands review 2014
Scots favourites soar in c-stores S
COTLAND won’t forget 2014 in a hurry, reckons Kantar Worldpanel business unit director Mark Thomson. The eyes of the world were on us for political reasons, sporting passions, and more. “It has also been a truly significant year within the grocery trade, in more ways than one,” he said. “For shoppers across Scotland, the economy is showing more positive signs of recovery with unemployment falling to 5.5% and overall growth in the economy of 2.6% over the latest year. “Against this, the big four grocers (Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons) have seen sales fall over the latest quarter in Scotland by 3.7%, whereas the discounters Aldi and Lidl have a combined growth of 18.7%, so the smaller channels within GB and Scotland are experiencing the biggest success. “This is also evident on the high street as convenience stores (Co-op and small independents) are collectively growing at 1.7% and now represent 13% of all grocery spend in Scotland (versus 8.5% of GB spend). “Shoppers are generally behaving the same way, yet what is changing is where they do their shopping. The discounters had six in 10 Scottish shoppers shopping in their stores over the latest quarter. Average big-four-supermarkets shoppers in Scotland
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What a year! ONCE again the December issue of Scottish Grocer brings you exclusive coverage of Kantar Worldpanel research on Scottish consumers’ takehome purchasing of brands of Scottish origin. And this year it’s bigger, better and more useful than ever. As in the last two years we have separated alcohol from other products as the sales value of alcohol products is influenced by the high rates of tax charged on those lines. This year you can check out a larger top 50 nonalcohol brands list as well as the top 25 drinks brands of Scottish origin in Scottish homes. In this opening article Scottish Grocer hears from
spent £34 less on their shopping in those big retailers over the latest quarter, whereas Scottish shoppers spent on average £8 more in discounters and £23 more in premium retailers (Waitrose and M&S). “Shoppers are also benefitting from falling grocery inflation, which now stands at -0.2%, as the big supermarkets have cut prices around everyday items such as fruit, vegetables and milk.
Mark Thompson, business unit director Kantar Worldpanel
Mark Thomson of Kantar Worldpanel about how Scottish brands more than held their own in Scotland and grew significantly south of the border, not least in the impressively performing independent convenience channel – all at a time when the wider market, especially the supermarket giants, struggled. An exciting year for Scotland ... and for Scottish brands.
“Overall, Scottish brands have performed strongly across Great Britain up 4.3% in 2014 versus last year, in contrast with all branded products (excluding retailer private label) which grew by 1.7%.” England and Wales are vitally important for the success of Scottish-based brands, he said. Compared to the GB overall growth of 4.3%, sales of Scottish brands in Scotland
were up by a lower but still very healthy 1.8%. In fact Scottish brands have proved vital to several retail channels. While overall sales in the big four multiple retailers were up only 0.6%, sales of Scottish brands in those stores increased by almost five times that rate at 2.8%. Within high street convenience, Scottish brands had their biggest success – up 9.75% in GB overall, including a huge 10.3% sales increase in Scottish c-stores. So who have been the main movers in 2014? “Malcolm Allan has remained the number-one food brand this year by increasing its presence on shelf across its core categories,” Mark Thomson noted. “Bells Pies has also climbed a place to establish its presence as a top-five Scottish grocery brand in Scotland. Tunnocks and Graham’s Dairies continue to climb the rankings, this was before teacakes hit our screen at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. Graham’s has taken its brand into wider categories such as cheese as well as having a growing presence within spreads,” he said. New product development and widening distribution have been very important to those brands that have climbed places in the list from last year because there has been very little sales growth as a result of price increases, he added.
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make up fd p50 and 51 Scottish brands opening spread D.indd 1
18/11/2014 15:06