Cream of the crop

Butter is performing significangtly better than the butters, spreads and margarines market overall.
Butter is performing significangtly better than the butters, spreads and margarines market overall.

Convenience gains share as little and often shoppers push spreading butter sales

THE trend for shoppers to do bigger top-up shops locally has seen convenience stores perform better than the overall market for sales of butters and spreads says Dairy Crest.
The company behind Country Life, Clover and Utterly Butterly says that 16% of total butters, spreads and margarine sales are recorded in c-stores. And while the overall category is down by 1.5% in the convenience channel that’s a much better performance than for supermarkets where the decline is greater than 4%. And in c-stores sales of butter itself are actually are up by 3.7%.
Head of marketing for butters and spreads at Dairy Crest Louise Pike said: “Topping up on staple products continues to remain the main shopper mission in convenience making butters and spreads a must-stock category for small independent retailers.”
Pike said that in contrast to the supermarkets, the convenience channel continues to see sales value of block butters grow.
And spreadable butters are doing particularly well.
She said: “Spreadable butter is undoubtedly the star performer, experiencing growth of 4.3% through the convenience channel.
“Dairy Crest’s Country Life Spreadable is performing extremely well, delivering year-on-year growth of 23%.”
Quoting HIM research, Pike said that 48% of shoppers’ decisions are affected by price-marked packs and that Dairy Crest’s PMPs had been developed to help convenience retailers compete against the supermarkets’ deep-cut promotional strategies.
She said Dairy Crest also employs value-added promotions across its brands, as well as specific promotions intended to differentiate its lines it from other brands.

Predicting continuing growth for spreadable butter, which is says accounts for £3 of every £4 spent on butter, Graham’s The Family Dairy is investing £1m to increase production capacity at its facility in Bridge of Allan.
Predicting continuing growth for spreadable butter, which is says accounts for £3 of every £4 spent on butter, Graham’s The Family Dairy is investing £1m to increase production capacity at its facility in Bridge of Allan.

• Graham’s The Family Dairy says the spreadable butter market in Scotland now accounts for £3 of every £4 spent on butter and has an estimated value of £63m.
Graham’s has invested £1m at its Aithrey Kerse Farm in Bridge of Allan to increase its spreadable butter manufacturing capacity.
Managing director Robert Graham said: “Spreadables account for 70% of butter sales in Scotland, but a staggering 96% of that spreadable butter isn’t made in our country.
“Graham’s Spreadable Butter is the only Scottish spreadable and is already the fastest-growing spread on the market, with sales up 7% year-on-year but this is just 4% of the market.
“Butter is a category that performs well and the market will experience continual growth with spreadables.
“It’s a natural product and we were keen to extend our offering to our retail customers and the Scottish households buying Graham’s products.”

• Lurpak Spreadable is encouraging people to Go Freestyle in a £7m marketing campaign that’s now running that suggests that preparing good food need not be difficult or time-consuming.
Senior brand manager at Arla Foods Thryth Jarvis said: “We want people to re-evaluate their food choices and have some fun with them.
“That’s why we’re celebrating the art of freestyling in the kitchen and that means no recipe, no plan, no carefully measured ingredients.”
Jarvis said Lurpak Spreadable had increased sales 3.3% to reach £257m.

• Stork has launched a £3.3 million marketing campaign to support its newest product, Stork with Butter.
The TV ad depicts two women baking cakes, one using Stork with Butter and the other using block butter.
Rhiannon Carr, brand manager for Stork at Unilever UK, said: “Home baking is a popular pastime and our new TV advert aims to excite both the occasional baker who bakes for special occasions, as well as the 30% of consumers that regularly bake from scratch at least once a week.”
Stork with Butter is available in 400g tubs in retail cases of 16 and has an RRP of £1.99.