Britain’s 100 Biggest Brands Risers, fallers & basket cases BBB16_01_cover.indd 3 11/03/2016 16:39 in association with nielsen britain’s biggest brands leader “In a climate of brutal rivalry, creative advertising has never been more important for Britain’s brands” ver the next 42 pages there’s a lot of discussion about the price of groceries. We are in the midst of a price war, after all. Sixty one of Britain’s top O100 brands have seen their average prices per unit fall in the past year. What’s more, SKUs are Britain’s 100 being jettisoned as the major mults fight to maximise the profit- ability of their shelves. Biggest Brands What you’ll also find in this year’s report is proof of the value of targeted, creative, effective and well invested marketing; Risers, fallers proof that when done properly, advertising can be so much more than just hot air; that it can help fuel a brand’s rise above the & basket cases deflation that has grounded so many of Britain’s biggest brands in the past year. It all starts with the product, of course. But with shelf space Where to find Britain’s 100 Biggest Brands squeezed and shoppers holding the purse strings ever more tightly, effective marketing of those products has never been Activia 31 Lindt 38 Air Wick 35 Lucozade 14 more important. Indeed, it’s crucial if retailers are to be per- Alpro 33 Lurpak 17 suaded that a brand is worthy of shelf space and, ultimately, AnchorBBB16_01_cover.indd 3 34 Magnum 11/03/2016 3016:39 Andrex 14 Maltesers 28 shoppers are to be convinced it’s worth paying more for. Ariel 30 Mars 35 See the performance of Warburtons, at no 2, for proof. It’s win- Aunt Bessie’s 31 McCain 17 Bakers 36 McCoy’s 36 ning share of a stale baked goods sector as Hovis and Kingsmill Bernard Matthews 38 McVitie’s 12 plummet. NPD has been central to this performance; so have Birds Eye 14 Monster Energy 35 Stallone and the Muppets. It’s significant that Warbies has main- Bisto 12 Mr Kipling 31 Bold 35 Müller Corner 25 tained a higher price per unit than its rivals in the past year. Cadbury 30 Müllerlight 30 Advertising pays, if it’s done well. Pepsi, the year’s second big- Cadbury Dairy Milk 12 Napolina 34 Capri-Sun 38 Nescafé 14 gest grower, continues to defy a difficult market, thanks partly to Cathedral City 18 Old El Paso 36 the innovative marketing of Pepsi Max, which uses digital media Chicago Town 35 Pedigree 25 Coca-Cola 10 Pepsi 14 and viral videos. Number one brand Coke, which admits it’s Comfort 28 Persil 18 struggled to communicate what no and low-sugar lines Zero and Cravendale 30 PG Tips 35 Life stand for, could learn a thing or two. Dairylea 38 Philadelphia 36 Dettol 36 Pizza Express 36 One of the year’s fastest growers is Monster Energy. That the Dolmio 30 Plenty 38 brand, which only entered the top 100 for the first time two years Doritos 26 Pot Noodle 36 Evian 30 Princes 22 ago, has got where it is today without ever advertising on TV Fairy 17 Pringles 26 is staggering. Monster proves that relevant marketing – in this Fanta 34 Quaker 22 Felix 18 Red Bull 18 case, sponsorship of motorsports, bikes and boobs on social Finish 34 Ribena 30 media – has become as important as having relevant products. Flora 31 Richmond 34 Galaxy 22 Robinsons 18 There are many more examples in this year’s report; brands Ginsters 35 Schweppes 35 flying high thanks to the swift development of new products, Haribo 28 Special K 38 expert negotiation of the tough conditions buffeting grocery Heinz Beanz 22 Surf 34 Heinz Sauces 26 Thorntons 34 and, crucially, innovative and relevant marketing. After all, that Heinz Soup 25 Tropicana 20 is what makes a brand a brand. Hellmann’s 35 Twinings 35 Highland Spring 38 Twirl 38 Hovis 17 Uncle Ben’s 28 Innocent 25 Velvet 34 Irn-Bru 36 Volvic 26 contributors Jacob’s 26 Walkers 12 John West 30 Walkers Sensations 35 Kenco 34 Warburtons 11 ● Supplement editor: ● Writers: Natalie Brown, Kettle 35 Weetabix 30 Rob Brown Simon Gwynn, Amy North, Kinder 36 WeightWatchers 34 ● Sub-editor: Kit Davies Carina Perkins, Daniel Kingsmill 17 Whiskas 25 Kit Kat 28 Wrigley’s Extra 22 ● Art editor: Stuart Milligan Selwood, Emma Sturgess, Kleenex 36 Yeo Valley Organic 32 ● Designer: Beth Johnson Kevin White Lenor 32 Young’s 31 www.thegrocer.co.uk 19 March 2016 | The Grocer | 3 BBB16_03_Leader.indd 3 15/03/2016 10:14 Britain’s biggest brands 4 | The Grocer | 19 March 2016 www.thegrocer.co.uk in association with nielsen Who’s flying high? Who’s down? Who’s out? Market headwinds have led to a £400m decline for the top 100, but some are still sky high. How? Rob Brown rocery brands are falling back to earth with a bump. With deflation gripping the economy, competition for supermar- Gket shelf space never fiercer and the dis- counters doing a roaring trade with their ‘like brands but cheaper’ promise, 56 of Britain’s 100 Biggest Grocery Brands have suffered a fall in value in the past year. and 61 have seen prices fall. And it’s across the board. Just three of grocery’s 10 biggest names – Dairy Milk (4), Nescafé (7) and Pepsi (9) – have managed to grow value in the past year. The combined loss of the top 10 brands stands at an eyewa- tering £105.6m, accounting for more than a quarter of the top 100’s combined loss of £408.5m, a 2% decline. The plummeting sales are not all down to price defla- tion, either; Britain’s biggest brands have shifted 87.8 million (0.6%) fewer units. Yet some are still gaining altitude at an impressive rate. Alpro (59) has turned in the greatest growth, worth £27.6m. Pepsi (9) has defied slumping sales of carbon- ated soft drinks with growth worth £22.6m. Kinder (83) is soaring, its £22.4m growth taking it into the top 100 for the first time. How are they doing it? And who’s down and out? One thing’s for certain: it’s considerably harder for brands to get off the ground than it was a year ago. In our 2015 report, 42 of the top 100 brands were suffer- ing from deflating average unit prices. As competition between the supermarkets has escalated, the prom- ise of cheaper brands is being used to lure shoppers through the doors. “Clearly there’s more promotional pressure and retailers are also taking a view on the everyday price of one brand versus another,” says Leendert den Hollander, general manager at Coca-Cola Enterprises, which has seen the average price of three of its five top 100 brands – Fanta (62); Monster Energy (73); Capri-Sun (97) – fall in the past year. “In partnership with our www.thegrocer.co.uk 19 March 2016 | The Grocer | 5 in association with nielsen Britain’s biggest brands customers, we need to try to define how we can bring Who’s in? value. To a large extent the onus is on us. We have to 83 (109) Kinder: A ask: how do we bring new news; how do we get con- keen eye on portion sumers ready to pay the right price?” control and sharing Responding to consumer trends with relevant NPD formats and savvy is crucial. The £16m growth of Monster Energy, which NPD have delivered has risen seven spots up this year’s ranking, is a case an extra £22.4m in point; in September, CCE unleased zero-sugar sub- brand Monster Energy Ultra, a range that has been a 94 (101) Plenty: key driver of the brand’s overall growth. The launch of THE RANKING Big ad spend has no-added-sugar Capri-Sun, in anticipation of Tesco’s RANK BRAND SALES CHANGE helped Plenty clean July axing of added-sugar kids’ drinks, and the January 2016 2015 £m £m % up in a category extension of Coke Zero Cherry into 330ml cans are other 1 1 Coca Cola 1,145.8 –30.1 –2.6 defined by falling examples of how brands are changing with the times. 2 2 Warburtons 695.3 –19.8 –2.8 prices and own label Note the absence of sugar. With Britain going to war 3 3 Walkers 599.3 –37.7 –5.9 growth. Up £6.8m with the white stuff and health a growing concern for 4 4 Dairy Milk 528.5 3.1 0.6 Brits at the checkouts, brands that have developed 5 5 Birds Eye 490.2 –25.3 –4.9 95 (11) Twirl: ‘healthier’ lines or marketed themselves on their nutri- 6 6 McVitie’s 464.5 4.5 –1.0 Sharing is caring for tional benefits are defying the downturn. 7 8 Nescafé 432.7 6.6 1.5 Twirl. The brand’s Examples abound. Alpro is flying high off the back 8 7 Lucozade 426.7 –0.2 0.0 £12.4m growth, of booming demand for dairy-free products and its 9 9 Pepsi 423.2 22.6 5.6 driven primarily by extension into new categories, such as potted des- 10 11 Andrex 350.3 –20.3 –5.5 sharing format Twirl serts. Innocent (26) is offsetting slumping sales of fruit 11 13 McCain 318.5 4.2 1.3 Bites, has catapulted juices with new functional smoothies, veg juice and 12 10 Kingsmill 312.6 –58.4 –15.7 it into the top 100 coconut water.