Consumers crave the big, bold, exotic flavours they find eating out. Smart brands have realised this and sought to re-create some of the street food thrill on the grocery shelves.
As the supermarkets make more space for the world foods aisle, new and more exotic flavours were offered across a range of products. Street food is particularly popular with millennials as it meets their preference for authentic and tasty products. This also ties in with the growth of vegan food as it is a way to add flavour to plant-based ingredients.
Pot Noodle, position 22 in the Brand Footprint ranking with a CRP increase of 11%, launched Asian Street Style. Available in flavours including Malaysian Laksa and Thai Red Curry, Asian Street Style achieved a penetration of 2% in the first eight months which was a key contributor to the brand’s success along with growth in both standard and king pots. Noodles have been in growth for five years now, up 9% last year. Batchelors, in position 14 this year, has had a strategic partnership with Japanese noodle brand Nissin for the last three years. They saw growth in this and their other pot snack products (which includes Pasta N Sauce and Super Rice) of 4%.
The food sector is particularly influenced by what is happening in the Out of Home market. People are often more adventurous when eating out, and this is reflected in the wide range of new cuisines available, for example in 2018 Ikeyi became the first African restaurant to receive a Michelin star. Lack of confidence last year meant that people ate out on average four times less but a side effect was the growing popularity of interesting flavours that can be prepared at home. Meal kits and seasonings are doing well in catering to this trend, for example Schwartz which launched a street food spices range.
The snack category also reflected the world foods trend, with a very successful launch for McCoys Muchos, which achieved seventh place in Kantar’s FMCG Innovations ranking. Muchos is a tortilla product available in a range of Mexican flavours and was strongly supported through the When Mexican Flavour Calls campaign which ran on TV and had instore support. Since the launch in January 2019, the brand reached 2.5 million households and achieved sales of £9 million. Crucially it has return appeal with 28% buying it again within a year. Doritos in position 25 grew CRPs by 1% due to their offering of strong flavours, but also the success of the bigger sharing bag.
Source: Kantar Out-of-home purchase panel
