Peanut Butter Spreads Across Britain
by Patricia Montgomery, LincsMag Writer.
Date: 17 July 2011
The steady Americanisation of these British shores continues as new research shows that over the last two years alone sales of Peanut Butter have rocketed by over forty percent, thus making it Britain’s fastest growing sweet spread.
Peanut Butter, has long been one of America’s favourite foods, in fact you would be amazed how imaginative and fanatical the Americans are with it as they find ever new ways of incorporating it into their everyday life and festivities.
They even have peanut butter Easter Eggs! And now, could this fanaticism be infecting the British?
From A Decline To A Surge
Valued at £28 million in 2008, sales of Peanut Butter have grown a sensational 43% in just two years to reach a nutty £40 million in 2010. After several years of stagnant growth - sales declined from £28 million in 2002 to a low of £25 million in 2006 - sales of Peanut Butter began to increase gradually from 2007 onwards.
Now in 2011, over a third (36%) of all Brits tuck in to peanut butter. Of those, 69% eat it as part of breakfast, 58% as a snack and 25% as part of lunch.
Recession and Health Issues
With such interesting figures we ask why sudden popularity? Senior Food Analyst Amy Lloyd gives her opinion, "The growth in popularity for Peanut Butter has been driven by a number of combined factors. Firstly the recession encouraged consumer purchase, viewing it as an indulgent low cost treat. Secondly, manufacturers have responded to consumer concern over health issues and the emergence of more natural varieties with less additives are helping to reposition peanut butter as a healthier option.
"What is more, traditional spreads such as Jam are facing competition from other spreads such as Chocolate and Peanut Butter which are less dependent on the breakfast occasion and more commonly used in other eating occasions."
So, it’s not just nuts which are proving popular with us Brits, but it seems things are looking pretty sweet for Chocolate spreads as well, which have seen an increase in sales of forty-one percent over the same two years to stand at £31 million in 2010.
The percentage increase over the past two years for Peanut Butter and Chocolate spread now dwarfs that of the nearest sweet spread competition - fruit and cheese curds (+25%) and Honey (+16%) - however all sectors of the sweet spreads market have seen stability or increase over the past two years.
A £664 Million Savoury Spreads Market
In 2010, the total sweet and savoury spreads market was estimated to be valued at £664 million, a rise of 30% since 2005. The spreads market is split almost evenly between sweet (£328 million) and savoury (£336 million).
Although sweet spreads are more popular than savoury (only 13% do not eat sweet spreads while 30% do not eat savoury spreads), the higher value of chilled spreadables such as sandwich filler and pâté and their shorter shelf-life has enabled savoury spreads to capture a slightly larger share of the market.
Within the sweet spreads market, the top five best selling spreads are: Jam, with a 2010 market value of £106 million, Honey (£88 million), Marmalade (£56 million), Peanut Butter (£40 million) and Chocolate Spreads (£31 million). Fruit and Cheese curds at £5 million and syrup & treacle at £2 million make up the remainder of the sweet spreads market segmentation.
Finally when it comes to savoury spreads, love it or loathe it, sales of yeast spreads have risen by 11% over the past two years. Last year sales of this spread reached just under £50 million (£49 million). The remainder of the savoury spread market is made up of chilled pate, paste and sandwich fillers (£196 million) and cheese spreads (£91 million).
