British sandwich market is worth £2.8bn, reveals TNS

The British sandwich market is worth £2.8bn, according to new research from TNS, which uses text messaging to collect data.

The market researcher claims it is the first company to put a true value on the market. TNS has looked at the price of each sandwich bought and consumed outside the home, as well as the number bought. In the last year it reports 1.69bn sandwiches were bought on-the-go at an average price of £1.66.

The market value is generated by TNS Worldpanel’s innovative Impulse Food on the Go service. According to TNS, it is the first panel service in the UK to use text messaging research combined with traditional techniques to gain precise measurements of the snacking market including soft drinks, sandwiches and savouries, confectionery, snacks and nuts, and crisps. The service asks panellists to text the bar codes of their purchases so that TNS can track their snacking purchases in real-time.

Tim Nancholas, strategic insight director, TNS Worldpanel, said: “The out-of-home snacking market is notoriously difficult to measure accurately, as people tend to buy on impulse and can forget the details of their purchases. The innovative text message reporting measure has provided us with a significantly more accurate view of this market and enabled us to show far more precise sandwich sales than previously achieved by the industry.”