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 Breakfast Cereal - March/April 2008  |
RTE Make-Over
Even for children’s store brand cereals, the sell these days is a lot softer. Well, maybe it’s harder – only in terms of nutrition. Notice something missing from most store brand cold cereals these days? It’s the cartoons. Generic versions of mascots for national brand children’s cereals used to be all over the place. Now they’re hard to find, and the emphasis is all on nutrition. On the back, there’s an educational thingy for smarter than average fifth graders, with facts their parents probably don’t know (“Many rodents hide during the day to avoid predatory hawks;” “Snails and frogs come out at night because they can lose too much moisture from the sun.”) and a word game that’s hard to figure out. It’s not the sort of package that kids will be begging their moms to put in the shopping cart. But those moms may be attracted by the low-key packaging as well as the price, the nutritional statement (for a three-quarters cup serving, with or without half a cup of skim milk), a recipe for marshmallow-Krunchies squares, and even the fact that the box is made from 100% recycled paperboard. Private label ready-to-eat cereals are gaining against national brands, according to Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), Chicago, IL. For the 52 weeks ended 1/27/2008, they reached $601 million – 3.5% ahead of a year earlier. As usual, those figures don’t count Wal-Mart, Bentonville, AR. And while store brand share was only 9.5%, total sales at $6.372 billion were up only 0.8%; national brands may actually have lost ground. IRI doesn’t break down sales of children’s and adult cereals, or distinguish sweetened and unsweetened. But nutrition is the thing, even for distributors that make distinctions in packaging. Scrunchy the Bear still appears on some ShopRite cereals like Cocoa Treats and Fruity Floats from Wakefern Foods, Elizabeth, NJ, but the vitamin and mineral counts are there. ShopRite raisin bran is “loaded with raisins,” but also “Smart for Your Heart.” Crunchy Raisin Bran, with granola clusters, has joined the store brand line-up at Wegmans, Rochester, NY. So has Blueberry Muffin Squares, a whole wheat and rice cereal with a combination of cinnamon flavor and real blueberries that offers half an ounce of whole grain towards a daily goal of three ounces. “Good Source of 12 Essential Vitamins and Minerals Including Iron,” packaging notes – but on the other hand, its fiber count is nothing to brag about. Fiber count is 13% of the daily value for French Vanilla Almond Crunch Granola under the Archer Farms Organic brand from Target, Minneapolis, MN – versus four percent for that Wegmans blueberry cereal and the same for Oats & More from Safeway, Pleasanton, CA. “Brighten your morning with our tasty and nourishing combination of rolled oats, crisp rice and almonds, highlighted by the warm aromatic notes of vanilla, nutmeg and cardamom,” reads a promo on the back panel – but the side panel shows relatively low vitamin content; people pay their money and take their choice. Target’s organic cereal line also includes other unique items – some given evocative rather than descriptive names, as with Morning Balance and Heart Smart as opposed to Triple Berry Clusters and Maple Raisin Oats. Organic cereals are getting huge in store brands; the Full Circle lineup from Topco Associates, Skokie, IL, includes crisp rice, frosted flakes, toasted oats, multi-grain flakes, wheat flakes and more, including one called Protein Crunch & More – which has also been embraced by Wakefern under the ShopRite Organic brand. Babies don’t have any choice, but their parents do – with Safeway’s O Organics rice cereal for infants. It’s a whole new concept for store brands. Made with organic brown rice, it’s billed as an excellent source of iron for babies four months and up, but also as convenient: “The fine flakes make it easy for your baby to eat and easy for you to prepare, for a quick and healthful meal that you can really feel good about.” One note of caution: it’s fine to mix it with breast milk as well as formula, juice or water – but not if it’s heated in a microwave, as that “breaks down its composition.” Hot cereal sales in store brands, at $187 million, trail far behind those for cold cereals, according to IRI. But they showed a 4.4% increase and reached a 21% share at a time when the overall market posted only a 0.6% gain, to $890.2 million. Again, it appears that national brands may have lost ground during the 52 weeks ended 1/27/2008. Retailers can put out just about anything leading brand Quaker does, and do it a lot cheaper. At Hannaford, Scarborough, ME, Hannaford brand was featured at three for $5 in February, versus $3.59 for Quaker – even Nature’s Place organic undersold the national brand at $2.49. Organic oatmeal is getting a lot more exposure in store brands elsewhere, as with Private Selection Organic at Kroger, Cincinnati, OH, and Meijer Organic at Meijer, Grand Rapids, MI. Other distributors and retailers are putting greater emphasis on healthy ingredients. Topco has a new sub-brand, Essential Choice, that is used on upscale instants like Cranberry Whole Grain Oatmeal Made with Flaxseed. Flaxseed is a popular addition to oatmeal these days because it adds ALA Omega 3 to boost its heart healthy claim. Safeway doesn’t make it entirely clear what earns its Golden Maple instant oatmeal the Eating Right brand as opposed to the plain Safeway brand. Two other store brand breakfast staples showed mixed results, according to IRI. Granola bar sales were up 6.2% to $76 million and an 8.8% share, but toaster pastry volume sagged 3.8% to $54.6 million and a 12.5% share. National brand granola bar sales soared, but branded toaster pastries did poorly. Recommended Suppliers
Products described or shown in this article are not necessarily available from these suppliers. For more suppliers see current Private Label Directory & Buyer’s Guide. |
