Whether they have a need for a midday snack, a meal enhancer, or are entertaining guests, consumers rely heavily on crackers, cookies, and pretzels. The importance of these categories is clear when you consider they account for $16 billion in annual sales, with 98.5 percent household penetration and over $150 in spend per buyer across all retailers. While overall cookie, cracker, and pretzel sales in 2021 were 11 percent above 2019, growth performance varied significantly. Among the retailers analyzed by TreeHouse, a key AWG Brands supplier, one-fifth saw cookie, cracker, and pretzel growth above 15 percent, while one-fourth saw growth below 5 percent.
So, what determines whether retailers are succeeding with these snacks? A key factor in why certain retailers are growing these categories much faster than others is the level of focus given to their private brands. TreeHouse segmented 39 national retailers based on the level of private brand share within the cookie, cracker, and pretzel categories and assessed their overall category growth. Those retailers most focused on private brands saw 60 percent higher growth between 2019 and 2021 when compared to the retailers with the lowest private brand share.
A focus on private brands within cookies, crackers, and pretzels drives higher growth for retailers for several reasons. Private brands are unique in being able to provide offerings across all the segments of these three categories, which is valuable considering the high level of shopper cross-purchase within cookies, crackers, and pretzels. In fact, even in a space with iconic brands, private brands are a top-three brand across the overall category. In addition, a sizeable portion of consumers exclusively buys private brands in many segments. A lack of focus on private brands results in these shoppers purchasing elsewhere.
Retailers are responding to these dynamics by dedicating a growing portion of their shelf to private brands. In fact, across the industry, private brands’ share of distribution was 3 percent higher in 2021 vs. 2019. Private brands are set to become even more important to shoppers in the current environment. Consumers are feeling the impact of both high inflation as well as low disposable income growth due to the pullback in government stimulus. As a result, shoppers are likely to place increased importance on value. That is particularly impactful within the cookie, cracker, and pretzel categories, which demonstrate higher than average price sensitivity. Providing a value-based offering leveraging AWG Brands is a great way to increase your share of your shoppers’ wallets in these categories and compete with big-box retailers who most certainly carry a wide assortment of these items in their private brands.
The most impactful step to take to heighten your focus on AWG Brands is to increase and optimize your assortment. If you’re looking for a place to start, there are many segments where private brands’ growth is much higher than national brands, such as seasoned and thin pretzels, as well as snacker, entertainer, woven wheat, rich and crips, and pita crackers. AWG Brands is helping retailers gain consumers in these categories by rolling out new items including multiple flavors of Best Choice cheese crackers, a new Best Choice Woven Wheat cracker, and new sizes of Best Choice sandwich cookies along with new Always Save pretzel types. By placing appropriate focus on AWG Brands, you can better serve the needs of your shoppers and unlock the potential of your crackers, cookies, and pretzel categories and ensure they aren’t going elsewhere to find their favorite snacks.
