Executive Summary

Snack foods represent a dynamic and fast-moving sector in the UK food industry. Despite the current economic climate, the market has experienced uninterrupted growth in recent years, registering a 4.2% increase in 1995, to £1.89bn. Key Note estimates the market increased by a further 4.8% in 1996 to £1.98bn.

The market comprises bagged snacks, i.e. crisps, savoury snacks, nuts and also includes plain and savoury biscuits and savoury snack biscuits.

Crisps dominate the UK snack foods market, acounting for 48% of value sales in 1995, with savoury snacks taking a 34% value share, and nuts 7%. The remainder of the market is accounted for by plain and savoury biscuits and savoury snack biscuits, with 6% and 5% respectively.

Generally, snack foods have benefitted from the continued trend towards snacking, and the growth of lunch box-type meals, which are when most snacks are consumed.

The main growth area has come from premium adult snacks, which has seen an acceleration in new product activity during 1996. Sales of adult snacks are currently worth around £110m, representing 5.8% of the total snack foods market.

A significant development has been the emergence of mainstream adult brands, such as Walkers Doritos, which have transformed specialist tortilla chip products into mass-market snacks.

The increasing trend towards healthier foods has also led to a growing demand for healthier snacks, and this has especially benefitted sales of savoury snack bicuits.

In the grocery trade, the underlying trend is towards bigger size packs, as reflected in multipacks, where the 15-pack multipacks grew to account for around 10% of sales in 1995.

Key Note forecasts that total retail sales will grow by 19.8% between 1997 and the year 2000, to reach £2.5bn.

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