Warburton secures NewBurn Bakehouse listings with Starbucks and Costa

Warburtons is taking its ‘Newburn Bakehouse’ range of gluten-free products into coffee-shops across the UK, having secured listings for two of its wraps with Starbucks and Costa. The Gluten Free Chicken and Basil Salad Wrap (£3.75) is produced in partnership with Costa, and is the first savoury gluten free product to be offered by the coffee shop chain in the UK. The wrap is also the first gluten free product within a coffee shop to receive accreditation from Coeliac UK.

Additionally, Starbucks is rolling out the group’s Gluten Free Veggie Good Houmous Wrap (£2.99 takeaway/ £3.59 eat-in) across its outlets in the UK, following a successful pilot.

Warburtons noted: “It’s a known fact that eating out is one of the biggest challenges people with food intolerances face – our loyal customers tell us this everyday. So it’s great to see big brands taking the lead in the gluten free food to go sector. As mainstream demand for free from continues to increase, we expect to see more and more establishments recognising the market opportunity with this fast growing audience”.

NamNews - Thursday 8th May 2014

Tesco close to finishing staff restructure and to shut 100 in-store bakeries

Tesco is reportedly close to concluding a major staff restructure across its entire business as part of Chief Executive Philip Clarke’s plan to reshape the business in a bid to become a global multichannel leader.

According to Retail Week, the struggling has been reviewing its roles across all levels to see if it has the right positions for its multichannel growth. The trade magazine said that Tesco will redeploy around 100 staff from the roles they are in, and create several hundred vacancies across other functions. The roles are said to be focused around the middle and junior level, and run across all functions including IT, marketing and commercial.

Meanwhile, Tesco is planning to close more than 100 of it in-store bakeries across the South East. According to The Grocer, the move comes after Tesco revealed it is to open a new centralised kitchen in Surrey producing fresh bread and artisan bakery products for its stores as part of it expanding Euphorium project.

The trade magazine quotes a Tesco spokeswoman as saying: “We already offer Euphorium bakery products in several of our stores in and around London and feedback from customers has been really positive. As part of our programme of creating compelling and enjoyable retail destinations for our customers, we’re going to be introducing the Euphorium range of artisan breads and cakes to more of our stores in the coming months.”

NamNews - Wednesday 7th May 2014

Kantar May 2014: Price competition intensifying as big four continue to lose share to the discounters

Latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks ending 27 April 2014 show that grocery market is growing at just 1.9% – the lowest level for at least 11 years. This low growth has been caused by intensifying price competition among the supermarkets and a resulting drop in price inflation.

Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, explained: “There are clear signs that the major supermarkets are reviewing their strategies in the face of increasing competition. We’re now seeing the big four moving away from ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ promotions and toward everyday low prices – with Tesco, Morrisons and Asda all announcing price cuts this month.

“The proportion of sales on promotion currently stands at 45% among the big four. By contrast, the figure at Aldi is just 3%. Tesco now states ‘Prices down and staying down’, Asda features ‘Price lock’, Morrisons introduced ‘I’m Cheaper – everyday low prices’ and the Co-operative has adopted ‘Fair and Square’ pricing in a move to give shoppers lower everyday prices with greater transparency. Lower prices across the board is great for shoppers, but has driven down market growth to its lowest level in 11 years.”

The figures show that Waitrose, Aldi and Lidl all continued their strong growth, achieving new record shares during the period with 5.1%, 4.7% and 3.5% respectively. Aldi’s sales growth rate of 36.1% is an all-time record for the retailer and Lidl’s 20.9% growth is its highest since August 2004.

Among the big four, Asda proved the most resilient, holding its 17.3% market share and narrowly beating the market with 2.0% year-on-year growth. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons all suffered declines in their market share, whilst Tesco and Morrisons recorded a fall in actual sales.

Kantar Worldpanel said that by its measure, grocery inflation now stands at 1.5%. This is the seventh successive fall and lowest level since June 2010 – reflecting the intensifying price competition in the market.

These findings are based on Kantar Worldpanel data for the 12 weeks to 27 April 2014. Kantar Worldpanel monitors the household grocery purchasing habits of 30,000 demographically representative households in Great Britain. All data discussed in the above announcement is based on the value of items being bought by these consumers.

NamNews - Wednesday 7th May 2014

Burgers for breakfast trend is growing

Traditional bacon sandwich tops Britain’s breakfast top 10, with croissants coming in last

Foodservice industry figures from the NPD Group show that burgers are fast becoming a British breakfast staple out of home. In the year ending December 2013, we consumed more than 100 million burgers when we had breakfast away from home, up more than +6% on 2012. Around one in 12 out-of-home burger servings (8.6%) were gobbled up before 11am compared to one in 16 (6.2%) five years ago (to year ending December 2008).

Kids are keener than ever on breakfast burgers
Groups with kids up to 17 years of age are playing an important role in the growing popularity of burgers as a breakfast item. Five years ago, adults unaccompanied by kids consumed more than 67% of burger servings eaten away from home in the 6am to 10:59am breakfast time slot. Groups with kids up to 17 years of age ate the remaining 33%.
Fast forward five years to 2013 and the adult share of breakfast burgers is down eight percentage points (at just over 59%), while groups with kids now get through nearly 41% of Britain’s breakfast burger servings – more than 40 million each year.


But bacon sandwiches are still the nation’s favourite
The NPD Group data reveals there’s no beating the mighty bacon sandwich, which took first place in the league table of our favourite breakfast food items eaten out of home.

Britons happily munched through more than 268 million bacon sandwiches when they ate breakfast away from home in 2013. Taking second, third, fourth and fifth places, toast, eggs, sausage and baked beans accounted for a further 793 million servings combined in the ‘out of home’ British Breakfast Top 10.

Croissants came tenth – right at the bottom of the British Breakfast Top 10 – with little more than 91 million servings, indicating that our tastes at breakfast time are distinctly ‘uncontinental’.

Is there any chance of our breakfast preferences becoming more European? NPD Group’s figures suggest Britons would rather have a breakfast sandwich – meaning any sandwich with a breakfast-type filling – than a croissant. We ate close to 117 million breakfast sandwich servings in 2013, over 25% more than for croissant servings.

The NPD Group: British Breakfast Top 10 food items (breakfast eaten while out of home) Year ending December 2013	Servings (millions) 5am to 10:59am
Bacon sandwich	268.1
Toast	247.0
Eggs	198.0
Sausage	196.6
Baked beans	151.7
Hash browns	133.7
Breakfast sandwich	116.6
Burger	100.1
Cereal	99.6
Croissants	91.0

Jack MacIntyre, UK Foodservice Account Manager for The NPD Group, said: “When people eat breakfast – perhaps on the way to work, or in the office, or as a treat at weekends – burgers are clearly growing in popularity. But the breakfast classics – servings of good old-fashioned bacon sandwiches, toast, eggs, sausage and baked beans – are unlikely to be toppled anytime soon. And, despite Britain’s improving café culture, it doesn’t look like continental breakfast favourites such as the croissant are going to sidetrack the appeal of the Great British Breakfast.”

Note to Editors:

• All data is for breakfast eaten ‘out of home’ in Britain (England, Wales and Scotland) in the year ending December 2013.
• In this survey, breakfast is defined as food bought between 5am and 10:59am.
• Groups with kids: a group of diners containing at least one person under the age of 17.

Source: Crest NPD, March 2014

Morrisons dumps the dump bins

New kids cheese spread

Primula Cheese has launched a new addition to the cheese spread category, which is its the first cheese spread in a tube format designed specifically for children.

The new ‘Kids Mild Squeezy Cheese’ (RRP £1.15) is available in 100g tubes and is aimed at three to 10 year olds. Primula claims it contains the lowest salt, fat, calories and highest cheese and calcium content of any branded spreadable cheese on the market. The product also contains no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.

Tesco has already listed the new product.

NamNews - Tuesday 29th April 2014

Lidl more popular than Tesco on Facebook (infographic)

UK Food consumption trends: four types of eaters

Brits fall into four categories when it comes to mealtimes, according to food brand Birds Eye, who has conducted a study to reveal the way people eat and interact at meal times.

The Big Mealtime Audit, which has been unveiled to mark Birds Eye’s new ‘Food of Life’ campaign, looks at how consumption habits have changed over the last 20 years. The study found that there are four different types of eater in Britain today – ranging from the Rep-eat-ers who has a meal repertoire of three meals to the Social-eats, the foodie who enjoys social get-togethers and typically has friends and family over for dinner at least twice a week. The Free Rangers was also identified as a common type of eater in the UK with one in five (20%) of people eating up to eleven times a day.
According to the findings, over a quarter of Brits (26%) now eat their breakfast on their commute while one in ten (10%) eat their dinner in the office or in the car. 85% said they regularly snack to get them through the day.

At home, Brits spend on average just 25 minutes around the dinner table. The most common dinner table topic is family (32%) while almost one in seven (15%) use their meal to talk football. Nearly half of Brits (49%) believe mealtimes are the best time in the day for conversation.

Professor Peter Jackson, the Professor of Human Geography at the University of Sheffield, who contributed to the study said: “British people have moved on from the traditional three meals a day to a much less consistent pattern of infrequent meals. While there is a ‘moral panic’ around the decline of families eating together, in reality this is exaggerated as many British people still share meals with family members on a regular basis.”

Margaret Jobling, Birds Eye Marketing Director commented: “Mealtimes are still clearly the glue that holds families and friends together, even though the nation’s eating and consumption habits have changed and we might not be sitting down for the traditional three square meals a day.”

THE FOUR TYPES OF EATER

Rep-eat-ers’ are those that know what they like to eat and regularly consume the same meal up to three days in a row (20%). Conscious about food wastage, over three quarters (77%) feel bad when throwing away out-of-date food and as a result 27% will only have a handful of meals that they roll out each week.

‘Social-eats’ are big on food and social get-togethers. Knowing how important time around the dinner table is (66%), ‘Occasion Eaters’ have friends and family over as much as twice a week (13%) and shop weekly to plan for these get-together meals (66%). Conversation topics tend to focus on family, work and school, with only (15%) using meals to discuss their relationship.

‘All Day Grazers’ appreciate food but are unable to fit in three square meals a day and more often eating little and often – as much as eleven times a day. Over a third (34%) have brinner – breakfast for dinner – and 42% snack late at night.

‘Free Rangers’ are made up of time-poor Brits who regularly eat on the go and out of the home due to work pressures. Over a quarter eat their breakfast on the commute (26%), and one in ten (11%) eat dinner in the office.
NamNews - Wednesday 23rd April 2014

Trend for high protein bakery products

High-protein bread will be a functional niche of the future if manufacturers can play up the satiety angle and get the taste right, says a health and wellness expert. Diana Cowland, senior analyst for Health and Wellness at Euromonitor International, said there had been a number of high-protein bakery launches, particularly in Germany, but this was a trend that would likely expand across the globe.

"At the moment it really remains quite niche, but it is beginning to gain traction outside of Germany. We do expect it to be seen in more countries and in a wider number of products,"she told BakeryandSnacks.com.

Adding value in the battle against the rise of gluten-free and low-carb

She said that incorporating protein into bakery products could also be a turnaround ticket for industry amid gluten-free and low-carb diets, although it would still always compete with gluten-free.

She suggested that bakery manufacturers pull protein and gluten-free together because it would resonate well with the health-conscious ways of the gluten-free consumer.

Formulation will need taste perfection

Cowland said that for any bakers looking to develop protein breads, taste would be critical given how regularly bread was consumed and the taste profile of plant-based proteins in particular.

She said that the US market would be most ready for high-protein bread launches. "In the US, they’re very accepting of high-protein products. We’ve seen a lot more off-the-wall high-protein products"

Source: bakeryandsnacks.com

Room for more crisps (and snacks?) brands in the market

Little consumer choice in the crisps category Consumer choice has been tainted by too few brands dominating the crisp category, the founder of a new crisp brand has claimed.
John Tague, founder of the crisp brand Tags, told FoodManufacture.co.uk that brand variety in the category didn’t reflect that of others, such as confectionery.

The likes of Walkers held 56% of the £3.3bn crisp market, according to data from the market research firm Mintel in 2013, which was too much for one brand, said Tague.

‘David and Goliath’

"It’s a difficult market, like David and Goliath almost, but we believe in our branding and our product quality and our mission statement to deliver great quality products at value for money for the consumer," said Tague.

"History tells you that big brands will be there forever, but there is a different consumer that comes into the categories that always look for something different."

To hear how Tague, former md of Seabrook crisps, is planning to take 10% of the UK’s bagged snacks market within 10 years, watch this video on the following link: http://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/Manufacturers/Little-consumer-choice-in-crisp-category/?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BDaily&c=YwAxeTgrWhDNloIwIcqH8xYVWs3GXWBP

Source: foodmanufacture.co.uk