Premier Foods begins Christmas campaign

Monday, 10 November 2008

Premier Foods, the UK's number one food manufacturer, is promoting its leadership in festive foods with a Christmas Made Easy campaign.

With a portfolio ranging from cakes and treats for the run up to the big day, to accompaniments and products for the all-important Christmas Day meal, Premier Foods has all the key ingredients to make a successful Christmas for everyone.

In addition to established family favourites, Premier Foods is launching new products and improved recipes, seasonal packaging designs and festive point-of sale to attract shoppers to its brands.

The company has also said today that it will be revamping its Loyd Grossman sauce range.

Gravies, Stocks & Stuffings

Premier Foods is launching new flavours and Christmas limited editions to its Oxo, Bisto and Paxo stocks and stuffings range.

Christmas Day gravy is made easy with ready-to-use Oxo Stock in three variants: Chicken, Beef and Vegetable.

Bisto, which celebrates its 100th birthday in 2008, is the UK's most popular gravy with seven out of 10 gravy buyers buying into Bisto.

Premier Foods is marking the centenary of Bisto Original Powder with a limited edition on-pack gravy jug offer.

For retailers looking to trade consumers up, ready-to-use Bisto Best is the ultimate solution for roasts. It is available in three variants, Beef with a hint of red wine & shallots, Chicken with a hint of Sage & Onion, Onion with a hint of Thyme.

Paxo is the UK's most popular stuffing and is a staple favourite at Christmas.

For shoppers looking to trade up, Paxo Celebrations in Chestnut & Cranberry or Sausage seasoning & Thyme is the perfect partner for roast turkey.

For Christmas 2008, Premier Foods has added two new variants to the Celebrations range: Wild Sage & Red Onion and Apricot & Orange. A new 75g sachet for smaller servings has also been introduced.

Christmas and Boxing Day pickles

Premier Foods are extending its range of Branston pickles with a new seasonal limited edition in order to attract new and younger buyers to the pickles fixture.

Branston is the nation's favourite pickle with 83% market share and is a must-stock line at Christmas with 6m jars bought during this period. 35% of its annual volume is generated in the last 12 weeks before Christmas with a record amount of sales going through in the final week.

Half of all Branston buyers only buy Branston pickle at Christmas so retailers must make the most of this by ensuring their shelves are well stocked right up to Christmas.

Retailers can capitalise on the consumer's willingness to try new pickle variants at Christmas too by stocking a new Branston limited edition seasonal variant, Red Onion and Cranberry.

Haywards is consumers' favourite brand of pickled vegetables at Christmas perfect for the Boxing Day table.

Christmas is a key selling period for pickled vegetables, almost half, 49%, of red cabbage is sold in the final quarter of the year and Haywards is the brand leader in pickled onions with a 32% market share.

Mincemeat

Mincemeat is another key Christmas line - 79% of sales are generated during the 12-week Christmas period (source: TNS 12 w/e 30 December 2007).

Top mincemeat skus in the Premier Foods stable include Frank Cooper's Superior Mincemeat in two popular 411g jar variants: Matured Mincemeat enriched with Cognac and Mincemeat with Cranberries, Ruby Port and Winter Spices.

Premier Foods also offers Robertson's Classic Mincemeat in a range of sizes including 411g, 822g and 1.36kg for retail customers and 2.72kg for foodservice.

Scrumptious Desserts

17.6m British Households (71%) buy desserts from supermarket shelves in the 12 weeks leading to Christmas with an increase in sales (excluding Christmas pudding) of 26%.

Premier Foods, with its market leading dessert brands Ambrosia, Birds, Hartleys and Angel Delight, is the perfect partner for Christmas dinner pudding and Boxing Day buffets. 12.7m British Households (51%) buying a Premier dessert brand in the 12 weeks leading to Christmas.

Pudding wouldn't be the same without lashings and lashings of thick creamy custard, which featured in 200 million occasions last Christmas, an additional 2.5 million households buying custard in the 12 weeks leading up to the big day.

Ambrosia and Birds are the nation's two favourite custard brands complimenting each other and playing a key role at Christmas.

Ambrosia Devon Custard, with its creamy comforting taste and convenient ready to use format is a firm favourite with families whilst Birds distinct flavour is preferred by more traditional, older consumers who want to prepare 'proper custard' just the way they like it.

And for those preferring a more traditional topping on their Christmas pud Birds Rum and Brandy Sauces are still a firm favourite at Christmas, achieving 91% of sales in the final quarter.

Ambrosia is one of Britain's best loved brands enjoyed by 12.3m British households each year and 7.6m households in the 12 weeks alone leading up to Christmas (an increase of 33%.)

It is the clear market leader with 61% market share in the final quarter and has the top 5 best selling skus in the category over the festive period.

The bigger 1kg carton is enjoyed by 3 times more families during the festive season vs. the rest of the year and sells 5 times more in the 12 weeks leading up to Christmas.

Ambrosia drove 6% growth in packs last Christmas and this year its set to continue this trend by introducing limited edition winter packs across the range where the familiar Ambrosia world gets magically dusted with snow.

These Winter packs will bring excitement to the ambient desserts fixture and create visual impact on & off shelf whilst featuring simple recipes on the back of the larger packs for all the family to enjoy this season.

Hartley's is Britain's favourite jelly brand with an 83% market share (TNS 52 w/e 16 August 2008). It is extremely popular at Christmas when it is used for making trifles and flans, as well as being a delicious and fruity treat on its own.

Hartley's has recently launched Fruit Toppers, which are an ideal topping for any dessert. Packed with 70% pure fruit, Toppers provide a healthier alternative to sweet toppings, available in three flavours: Raspberry, Blackcurrant and Tropical.

With over 40 years in the making, Angel Delight has also been an easy way to add magic to your desserts. It is a fun way to keep the kids entertained during the Winter holidays and made with ½ a pint of milk is full of calcium goodness.

Christmas cakes

The ambient cake market is now worth over £1bn. At Christmas it expands fast, peaking at double its normal size. Sales of Christmas cake are almost entirely incremental and in 2007 contributed an extra £115m in sales.

16.7m households, 67% of the nation, purchased Christmas Cake, each buying on average 5 products across 3 trips to the supermarket or local store. Each household spent on average £7.83 on Christmas Cake (TNS December, 2007).

The number one item is unsurprisingly mince pies accounting for 44% of all sales.

In 2007 an incredible 370m Mince Pies were sold from the ambient and in store bakery fixtures. 13.5 million households bought and ate on average 27 mince pies each (TNS December, 2007)!

64 million of these mince pies were from famed baker Mr Kipling. This makes Mr Kipling far and away the nations favourite Mince Pies - with 1 in every 6 pies bought coming from its bakery (TNS December, 2007).

2008 sees an even better Mr. Kipling ‘exceedingly merry' Mince Pie. With delicious fluted pastry and unique recipe mincemeat specially prepared fresh in our own bakery.

Mince Pies also feature under the Lyons brand, including catering pack sizes, ideal for parties, and larger family gatherings.

New for 2008 is Mr Kipling's Winter Warmer selection, an assortment of 3 fruity and seasonal pies. The fillings are Apple & Cranberry, Rhubarb, and Plum Pear & Cinnamon, and they are attracting shoppers who want a change from Mince Pies but still a rich fruity and spicy flavour.

Mr Kipling Christmas Cake Slices are the top-selling seasonal slice, while Christmas Pudding Slices are popular with traditional consumers. Both offer the full taste of Christmas without having to buy a big cake or pudding.

The Mr Kipling brand also offers Orange & Cranberry Mini Classics, the 10th top-selling small Christmas Cake.

Cadbury Cakes complete any festive feast and feature a range of Christmas products and seasonally-inspired packs.

New for 2008 are Christmas Curl Cakes, 5 rich and indulgent chocolate cakes.

The 10-Cake Selection Box has been magically re-invented in a Christmas tree-shape, while Cadbury Cake Bites, available in Mint Crisp and Orange Crisp, have been repackaged in sharing tubs.

Other key lines include Festive Flake Cakes, the second biggest selling small Christmas Cake and Mini Yule Logs, the fourth biggest selling small Christmas Cake.

Cadbury's Triple Chocolate Yule Log is another popular line and in many houses is an as important to the festive season as Christmas Cake.

Merchandising advice

Premier Foods has developed a number of Christmas Made Easy POS solutions for retailers to help drive sales of Christmas lines. The range includes materials such as shelf stripping, FSDUs, barkers, wobblers and posters.

Display tips:

• Ensure these key Christmas products are clearly displayed and in a prominent location

• Keep the shelves and displays well stocked and ensure they never run out - shoppers are likely to visit convenience stores for items they may have forgotten on a larger, shopping trip

• Give additional space to Christmas products on gondola ends

• Make good use of any point-of-sale you have to promote these lines

• Contact your local representative for advice on Christmas products and merchandising solutions

• Create a Christmas display area near the checkout to boost incremental sales. It's simple and easy to do and a great way of encouraging purchases of additional items

• Use Premier Foods' Christmas Made Easy promotional pack to help drive consumer awareness of Christmas lines.