What you need to know
High levels of purchasing for both yellow fats and oils mean that to grow value sales brands need to unlock new usage occasions or encourage trading up. Most of the growth in the £1.7 billion combined market in recent years has come from increases in commodity prices.
For expanding usage, promoting a wider range of uses and versatility is needed. Recipe ideas and locating products in-store next to foods they can be used with would help to drive awareness of suitability to encourage uptake. This holds particular potential for flavoured oils and mini portions of flavoured butters, given consumer interest. With potential to appeal as a shortcut to adding flavour, these help add value to the market.
Sustainability and health claims both offer scope for adding value to the market, but there is no room to compromise on taste given that it is more important than anything else for most consumers when it comes to butter/spreads. Naturalness is also important, given its association with being healthy. As such, the challenge remains for brands to bring together taste, health, naturalness and sustainability for a winning combination.
Products covered in this Report
This Report covers the UK retail market for yellow fats and edible oils.
Yellow fats include butter, margarine and spreads, including cooking fats intended for cooking or baking.
For the purposes of this Report, spreadable butter (including variants with vegetable oil) and ‘light’ butter are included as butter in the market segmentation.
Edible oils include vegetable oil (which is usually rapeseed) and single-seed oils such as sunflower and corn, plus olive oil (including extra virgin), along with cold-pressed rapeseed, coconut, groundnut, walnut, sesame and other varieties of speciality oil, as well as blends, for use in domestic food preparation. Spray oils are also included.
