The Thai snack market at a glance
Both savoury and sweet segments are in decline
Despite people spending more time outside their homes, the overall trend of increased OOH consumption is not being reflected in Thailand’s snacks sector.
While average basket size has remained around the same, value sales are going down, with a year-on-year drop in total spend of 3.4%: -3.5% for savoury snacks and -3.3% for sweet snacks. This cannot be attributed to lower prices, as these have only reduced by 0.3% over the last year.
Purchase frequency is also going down across both savoury and sweet categories, with the average number of trips per buyer falling by 1.4 compared with the previous year.
Total volume purchased has reduced by 3.1%, with each consumer buying 2.8% less from the snacks category than they did the previous year. Despite a population increase of 0.5%, the number of people in Thailand who purchase snacks has reduced by 0.3%. This equates to a 0.8% drop in penetration, which now stands at 96% of the total population.
The decline in sales and frequency can be seen across all consumer age groups, except for those in their twenties.
So what’s behind the decline?In alignment with current trends in the FMCG industry as a whole, consumers have become more cautious in their spending. For instance, price and penetration relate directly to one another: when the price goes up, penetration drops, and vice versa.
