IMPORTANT UPDATE: Click & Collect MOQ changes. Please see more details HERE

Category advice

Market Insight

Category advice2023

Cheese

Excluding milk, Cheese is the largest chilled dairy category in convenience stores, worth £94.5m.

Cheese is bought by 3 in 10 households on average every 4.5 weeks in convenience stores.

Flavoured Milks/Rtd Coffees

Flavoured milk and RTD coffees are worth £124m in Symbols and Independents and growing by 19.5% vs LY, Total Convenience sales were worth £252m in 2022 with sales +23%.

Chilled Coffee continues to outperform the Soft Drinks category and deliver double digit growth in the L52Wks: Value +18.3% vs. (Total Soft Drinks +10.2%). This growth is even faster within Symbols (+32.7% YoY).

Chilled Yoghurts

A convenience shopper who picks up Chilled yoghurts and Desserts when in store has an average basket value of £18.06, this is an increase of 71% on the average convenience basket spend.

Category Overview

Chilled space is precious in convenience stores, making it vital to get the basics right. A customer that can find the basics whenever they shop is likely to visit at least 3 times more each month and increase basket spend by between 25 & 140%.

Milk

Milk is the largest category at £407m, accounting for 55% of sales and growing at +4.3% YoY.

Non-dairy Milk

Plant-based drinks hold 3% share of the milk category in independents & symbols. If stores stock one Non-Dairy milk it should be an Oat based one as these account for 51% of sales and were the fastest growing segment in 2022 (+37%).

Butter and spreads

3 in 10 households have bought butters & spreads in a convenience store in the last year. Stocking brand are key as they deliver 95% of value sales and 90% of category volume sales in C-stores.

Chilled Juice

Within symbols and indies, the Chilled Juice category is worth £26m. Take home Juice is the largest part of this with 65% share vs 35% for Single Serve Juice.

Chilled Meat Snacking

Chilled Meat Snacks are worth over £236m and are growing +17%.

Chilled Meat Snacking is growing +25% in total convenience.

The Micro-snacking category is worth £32.1m the Impulse channel growing at 3.0%.

Milk

If stores stock one Non-Dairy milk it should be an Oat based one as these account for 51% of sales and were the fastest growing segment in 2022 (+37%). After Oat, Soya is the second biggest segment with a 26% share and then Almond with a 17% share.

It's important to represent all fat types and core pack sizes (1L/2pt & 2L/4pt)

Alpro

Chilled juice

Chilled Juice

Single serve juice under trades in Symbols and Indies by 22% points vs the total impulse channel – huge opportunity to close this gap – shoppers are increasingly choosing juice and smoothies for a healthy snack.

Cheese

It is crucial to stock Cheddar as it delivers 47% of Cheese volume sales.

Hybrid working is now the norm, stock a range of cheese snacks to cater for both in home and carried out lunch occasions targeted at both kids and adults.
Consumer focus on health has grown following the pandemic. Meet shopper needs by offering reduced fat and dairy free alternatives from the top selling brands.

Flavoured Milks/Rtd Coffees

Where possible site single serve drinks at front of store and close to other soft drinks. Including Flavoured Milks in lunch Meal Deals (as many of the Supermarkets do), this is also a great way to drive shopper spend and repeat visits.
Flavoured Milks are particularly strong in Convenience where they have outperformed Total Market growth in 2021 and 2022 at +6%, this is a category that retailers should be backing and giving more space to.

Retailers should also make sure that they offer shopper both on the go and take-home solutions.

Drinks

Butters & Spreads

Top selling 10 sku's generate 61% of convenience store category value sales.
Catering for all shopper needs within the range is key to capitalise on the planned top up mission. Demand is strong for Dairy Free so ensure this segment is represented on shelf.

PMPs should be stocked where possible.

Butter

Information correct at time of print.

Must Stock Lines

Category advice2023

These are the ‘Must Stock’ lines which shoppers expect to see in a convenience store. By stocking these lines, you will be meeting your customers’ needs and therefore they will visit your store again.

We suggest you stock the following range: