Britain Big on Snacking

Brits are Europe's biggest snackers, according to the latest from Datamonitor. By 2008, snacking will account for 44% of all 'eating occasions', and UK consumers will spend a total of £10.3bn on snacks, 20% more than the 2003 figure of £8.5bn.

The report, catchily entitled 'New Impulse Consumption Occasions', is a comprehensive analysis of morning, afternoon and evening snacking and non-alcoholic drinking occasions, by location, covering the US and Europe. It finds that Britons consume £143 worth of snacks per person per year and predicts a rise to almost £158 by 2008. This compares to £141.50 per person in the US and £109 per person in Europe. However, US consumers snack more often - 2.2 times a day on average in 2003, compared to 1.9 in the UK. The higher spend in the UK is down to much greater consumption of chocolate confectionery and the fact that 'fast food type snacks' are not included in the definition (this would make US per head expenditure significantly higher).

According to report author Daniel Bone, Consumer Markets Analyst at Datamonitor, 'UK manufactures and retailers have been relatively effective in creating reasons for consumers to snack more. Even simple innovations such as placing chocolate or cereals into bagged snack format like Kellogg's have done with Special K means that volumes of impulse snack consumption continue to increase'.

'British snackers are becoming increasingly difficult to please,' continues Bone, 'as their demand for healthy and 'guilt free indulgence' snacks increases. The key to success lies in recognizing and capitalizing on these core trends affecting buying behaviour'.

The research suggests that the occasion has a greater influence on the choice of snacks than the consumer's demographic profile, and concludes that marketers should place greater emphasis on positioning products against defined occasions, something very few do at present. For example, performance-boost and health-focussed products should target morning and afternoon occasions, whereas 'Evening is the peak time for indulgence' according to Bone. 'Communicating occasion specificity in promotions is vital... For example, in 2002 popcorn manufacturer Orville Redenbacher successfully reached its consumers at a very specific time, by establishing 9:00 pm every night as Orville Time'.

One of the key trends identified is innovation with ethnic cuisines and new flavour experiences in snacks, which along with increased willingness to 'trade-up' to a higher-priced snack has led to the 'mid-market' and 'super-premium' snack in addition to the traditional standard and premium segments.

Datamonitor suggests however that there is 'an equally important counter-trend ... the return to traditional flavours', and recommends the development of broad product portfolios to cater for such fragmented tastes.

In terms of definitions, Datamonitor's analysis was restricted to impulse categories: bakery items, bagged snacks, dairy snacks, fruit and vegetables, and confectionery. 'Snacks' consumed during lunch or evening meals are not included in the analysis.

Datamonitor's web site is at www.datamonitor.com

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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