April 2004 Times & Trends Executive Summary:
CFOOD-TO-GO SHOPPERS
– Searching for Healthier Portable Meals & Snacks

Times&Trends reviews new developments and critical events across all major CPG categories, key channels and all consumer groups, providing powerful benchmarking insights to help guide strategic decisions.

This month’s subject is part of Times&Trends series on the Wellness Evolution. The brief focuses on the top food & beverage growth category over the past two years, Snack Bars/Granola Bars, better described as “Breakfast, Cereal, Granola, Snack, Nutritional, Energy, Protein, Fitness, Low-Carb, and Dieting Bars,” a booming category who’s dynamic functionality is changing the way we live.

This free summary is also accessible via the GMA Web site  at http://www.gmabrands.com/publications/gmairi.cfm

Better-for-you, portability and dieting benefits are converging in food & beverage CPG’s fascinating and top growth category – Snack/Granola Bars.  This fascinating and growing category is the focus of this month’s topic, part of our series on “the Wellness Evolution.” 

As the chart below illustrates, the Bars category has the best average growth rank of all food & beverage categories with estimated growth of $200 million or more (Bars ranks #3) and estimated growth rates of +20% or more (Bars ranks #2).  The comparison is based on a current year of data through February 22, 2004 versus calendar year 2001 – a two-year span.  The data is projected across all CPG shopping channels linking shopper panel information with scanner data from Supermarkets.

Consumer demand for healthier and nutritional benefits is growing – evidenced by recent consumer response to the Atkins low-carb diet and low-carb innovations or product categories, and the dynamic growth of “healthier” Portable Bars.  The growth of this “healthier food-to-go” category illustrates the potential force of the wellness evolution within a number of product categories and services. 

“Wellness” Bars Are Driving Growth.  The Bars category over a 5-year span has a +17% composite annual growth rate – pulsed by the “Health Bar or Wellness Bar” segment with a +32% composite annual growth rate across the Food/Drug/Mass (excluding Wal-Mart) combined channels. 

Wellness = Nutritional & Low-Carb Innovations.  Low-Carb brands have grabbed 13% share of category scanner sales (FDMx) in the current year; other nutritionally focused bars (+energy, +protein, +fitness or +diet/low-sugar) = 25% share.  The category forerunner segments – breakfast/cereal & granola bars – have seen their combined share drop from an est. 71% to 55% and rice snack squares from 13% to 5%, comparing current year to 1998.

Cereal & Granola Bar Shoppers Driven by Kids’ Preferences. IRI’s 2004 Shopper Satisfaction Survey shows that core young family buyers are intent on pleasing their kids’ preferences. But an IRI 2003 Wellness Study showed that these families are also shifting consumption of snacks and beverages from more indulgent choices to healthier or nutritionally focused choices. Mom rules.

Nutritional & Low-Carb Bar Shoppers Driven by Health Interests & Nutrition Information. The same Shopper Survey reveals that buyers of nutritionally or low-carb positioned bars are more interested in choosing items based on their nutritional values – they read nutritional labels and avoid foods high in saturated fat.
 

“Better for You” bars are bringing new shoppers into the category and new challenges to retailers. Because low-carb and other “healthy or nutritional” bar shoppers think differently than cereal & granola bar shoppers this should lead to different in-store merchandising strategies and stocking locations. The Portable Bar Category is an example of how retailers and manufacturers can work together to enhance the consumer shopping experience and result in increased sales.

  • Evaluate space allocation to create “healthier” solution centers and one stop shopping experiences.

  • Develop instore signage that highlights “healthier” alternatives and assists shoppers’ evaluation of nutritional choices.

  • Ensure there are knowledgeable employees who can help shoppers make “healthier” comparisons and selections.

  • Develop and hold “healthier eating” shopper workshops.

  • Reward breakfast/granola bar shoppers with “healthier” bar coupons.

IRI’s “2004 Shopper Satisfaction Survey” can aid in sharpening category understanding. It enables CPG retailers and manufacturers to conduct custom analyses that tie shopping attitudes and retailer satisfaction ratings with shopper spending and category-specific purchasing behavior by retailer or region.
 

   
 

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Source: IRI's Times & Trends Reports
Information Resources, Inc is a leading provider of UPC scanner-based business solutions to the consumer packaged goods industry.