To be healthy can be taking out, adding in or even moving into emerging sectors.
One third of food and drink is now consumed with health in mind, a proportion that has risen over the decades. Health can be considered both positively and negatively, either as ingredients to include in the diet or things to avoid. With the focus on the sugar tax which became effective for soft drinks in 2019, there have been efforts to take sugar out of dairy as well, particularly products aimed at children. In other respects, dairy with its high protein content has been seen as a relatively healthy choice. However, there is an expectation that saturated fats could be the next focus for legislation so more light versions of traditional favourites seem likely.
Yeo Valley is the sixth largest brand in this year’s dairy ranking with a growth in CRPs of 1%. This is all the more impressive as the yoghurt market has at the same time declined in value by 1%. Yeo Valley, with organic credentials, is well positioned as a healthy brand and this has certainly helped with its performance. Building on this, the brand launched a Kefir variant at the end of 2018 which taps into two key trends: gut health and provenance. Kefir has been the strongest product in terms of growth, backed up by natural yoghurt, growing at 17%, and Greek style yoghurt, up by 32%.
The cream sector has grown this year by 4%, but the growth is driven by the light products as people focus on indulgence in a slightly healthier way. Elmlea has grown CRPs by 1%, driven to a large extent by its presence in the discounters; in Lidl alone, the brand has grown by 1% in the last year.
