THERE are opportunities for retailers during the school term beyond selling items for packed lunches according to Dairy Crest. The company’s central shopper marketing manager Amy Fisher said: “The lunchbox is by far the biggest part of the back to school market, needing to be filled up week in week out, and purchasing for the lunchbox is a significant chunk of the weekly shop.
“Additionally, school kids themselves have plenty of money to spend on impulse food and drink in local stores on the way to school, at lunchtime and on the way home.”
And Dairy Crest cheese brand Cathedral City is continuously creating new products for the dairy snacking category such as Chedds, she said.
“Free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives Chedds offers children an exciting and convenient way to enjoy real Cheddar, whilst reassuring mums that they are providing a 100% natural product,” she argued.
“The Chedds brand is now worth over £8.3m and was purchased by over 1.5m households in the last year.”
Looking beyond the school day, Fisher said that there is significant opportunity in cheese snacking generally.
In response Dairy Crest has released the Cathedral City Selections Mini Bag which contains five individually wrapped 12g cheese pieces.
The brand’s marketing manager Elaine McCague said: “The new format is tailored to the convenience sector.
“The smaller pack size has been developed to help convenience retailers target the top-up shop mission and carries an MRSP of just £1 to encourage trial for snacking in home or for at-desk consumption.”
Referring to IRI figures, Fisher said Cathedral City is the UK’s number one cheese brand, with year-on-year growth of 1.9% and 14.9% in convenience stores.
She said that, with value sales of £283m, Cathedral City achieves greater sales than all other branded cheddars combined and that Kantar Worldpanel reported in May 2015 that it is purchased by over half of all UK households.
Dairy Crest also sees opportunities to sell drinks for consumption with school lunches and as after-school treats or top-ups.
Laura Sheard, head of marketing, dairy drinks at Dairy Crest said: “Low sugar dairy drinks are carving their way in the market thanks to the recent consumer trend for healthier alternatives.
“In January 2015, Dairy Crest launched Frijj 40% Less Sugar.
“We are hugely proud of the work our development teams have delivered to achieve this.
“We are continually looking for opportunities to bring new and innovative products to market.
“With sugar so hot on the agenda in recent months we have every confidence our new launch will resonate in the marketplace.”
