What you need to know
The UK market for sweet biscuits was worth £1.83 billion in 2019. Despite concerns about sugar, consumers are continuing to snack on sweet biscuits, reflecting the snacking culture in the UK and the appeal of sweet biscuits as treats despite strong competition from other snacks.
The sentiment that it is OK to eat small amounts of sweet biscuits every day as part of a balanced diet is ensuring continued purchasing. Portion-sized packs, a focus on quality over quantity and more seasonal launches, including new flavour variants, will all help encourage people to keep buying.
For a quarter of eaters of sweet biscuits, the perfect biscuit is a healthy one, so healthier products will also be important in keeping sweet biscuits on the menu or encouraging more eating of them. At the same time, sales of cereal/snack bars have been growing, and offer an easy healthy swap for more than four in 10 eaters of sweet biscuits.
Products covered in this Report
This Report covers sweet biscuits, including breakfast biscuits, as well as cereal/snack bars sold through retail channels.
Sweet biscuits include everyday biscuits (eg digestives, Rich Tea), biscuits with added ingredients such as chocolate coatings, cream or jam fillings, cookies and chocolate biscuit bars (eg Penguin, Club). The latter also includes chocolate biscuit bars classified as biscuits from brands like KitKat.
Cereal and snack bars include fruit-based, nut-/seed-based, cereal-/granola-based bars, and energy/exercise bars (eg Trek Bar), but exclude sports nutrition bars and meal replacement bars targeted for dieting.
The market definition differs from that used by Mintel Market Sizes (MMS) as chocolate biscuit bars are included in this Report.
