Released on = April 16, 2007, 5:01 am

Press Release Author = Bharat Book Bureau

Industry = Marketing

Press Release Summary = This report looks at the retail markets for salty snacks
(potato crisps, other bagged savoury snacks and snack nuts) and sweet snacks
(chocolate countlines, chocolate-biscuit countlines, cereal bars and cake bars).

Press Release Body =
Sweet and Salty Snacks Market Assessment

This report looks at the retail markets for salty snacks (potato crisps, other
bagged savoury snacks and snack nuts) and sweet snacks (chocolate countlines,
chocolate-biscuit countlines, cereal bars and cake bars). Although a
well-established, and in many ways mature, food sector, overall value growth in
salty snacks in 2001/2002 was a very marginal 0.1%. However, the sweet snacks market
fell by 5.3% in value in 2001/2002, showing a significant decline in the largest
sector, chocolate countlines, and growth only in the smallest sectors - cereal bars
and cake bars.

New product development (NPD) is vital to support continued growth in the salty
snacks market, and to stem the decline in sweet snacks. Recent important
developments in salty snacks have included emphasis on the adult market, through
more sophisticated flavours, different formats (e.g. dips) and premium prices.

Growth in sweet snacks has been concentrated in the relatively small sectors of
cereal and cake bars. Developments have followed demographic and social changes,
including the gradual rise in the number of working women, busier lifestyles and an
increasing number of individual snacking occasions. Market growth has also been
supported by the expansion of chocolate bars, chocolate countlines and breakfast
cereals into chocolate-biscuit countlines, cake bars and cereal bars.

However, sweet and salty snacks are under constant pressure from a widening range of
snack packs and variants of other established foods, such as biscuits, cheese,
fruit, cereal and salads, often with more healthy images than sweet and salty
snacks, which are perceived as being high in fat, salt and sugar. Manufacturers have
addressed this through the introduction of low-fat versions of sweet and salty snack
products, the promotion of cereal bars as alternatives to healthy breakfast cereals,
and the launch of organic salty snacks.

Walkers Snack Foods continues to dominate the crisps sector of the salty snacks
market, with other major manufacturers including KP Snacks/McVitie\'s, Golden Wonder
and Procter and Gamble. KP is the major force in snack nuts. Masterfoods,
CadburyTreborBassett and Nestlé Rowntree dominate the chocolate countlines market,
although chocolate-biscuit countlines is a more competitive sector, led by Nestlé
Rowntree and United Biscuits\' McVitie\'s. The cereal bars sector is led by Kellogg\'s,
and cake bars by McVitie\'s and Rank Hovis McDougall\'s (RHM\'s) Manor Bakeries.

It forecasts that total market growth will be 5.2% between 2002 and 2006, with the
salty snacks sector increasing by 6.8% and the sweet snacks sector by 3.4%.

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