New foodservice industry figures from The NPD Group Inc, the global information company, show that many of us still have the urge to ‘snack’ – often on sugary products – when away from home.
Doughnuts were among the fastest growing ‘out of home’ snack items in the year ending December 2013, growing by +11.1% servings compared to the previous year. Brownies came a close second, growing +10.9% with a total of 54.6 million servings for the year. But chocolate bars topped the league table of our favourite snack food items away from home.
Snacking overall is down
Despite our obvious sweet tooth, the appetite among Britons for snacking away from home is declining. Snacking visits out of home decreased -2.3% in the year ending December 2013 following several years of growth.
NPD Group figures show that all types of snacking dropped: morning snacks decreased -2.9%; afternoon snacks dipped -2.4% and late snacks were off -1.7%.
However, snacking on the go has increased with snacking in cars or on other forms of transport up by +2.6%. There is clearly still an appetite for snacks among busy consumers on the go.
Pubs saw the biggest drop in snacking business; they recorded 28 million fewer snacking visits in the year ending December 2013 (down -11.7%).
Saving money?
The biggest loss of appetite for snacking was among the C2DE social groups, with snack visits down by -13.1%. In contrast, snack visits among the more affluent ABC1s were up by +5%. But consumers will still be tempted to snack if there’s a promotional deal involved. Snacking visits to take advantage of a promotion increased this year by +2.1%.
What do we like best?
Chocolate bars finished the year way ahead, with 7.3% of all snack visits including one of these treats. Cake and crisps came in 2nd and 3rd, while beef burgers came in 4th, narrowly beating ice cream into 5th place. Sandwiches are still seen as good snacks but individual sandwich choices such as chicken (100 million servings) or bacon (78.4 million servings) still came behind the Chips and French Fries option (111.8 million servings).
£8.1 billion market
Jessica Chambers, Client Development Manager for The NPD Group, said: “We spent £8.1 billion on ‘out of home’ snacks in 2013 so we are not losing our knack for a snack, even though some people are definitely trying to save money by snacking less often.
“And with three sweet snacks in the top five fastest growing, and nearly 425 million servings of chocolate and cake happily consumed out of home in 2013, we clearly have a sweet tooth.”
When consumers are looking for a snack, ‘convenient location’ is still the number one reason to visit a particular outlet or restaurant – accounting for 44.9% of occasions.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
The NPD Group provides global information and advisory services to drive better business decisions. By combining unique data assets with unmatched industry expertise, we help our clients track their markets, understand consumers, and drive profitable growth.
For more information, visit www.npd.com and npdgroupblog.com. Follow us on Twitter: @npdgroup.