Snacks are in the bag
It was the year when the cheese & onion bit back.
The flavour, first launched in the UK by Golden Wonder back in the 1960s, has leapt to the top of the chart of the top-selling varieties of bagged snacks in pubs in the Food Report this year.
Last year it was lagging behind perennial favourite ready salted - yet now more than three out 10 (31 per cent) Publican readers say cheese & onion crisps are their top-selling bagged snack, ahead of ready salted on 27 per cent.
The Food Report research backs up the findings of a recent study from Mintel which also showed cheese & onion was now the top-selling crisp flavour in the UK.
And the category continues to perform well overall in pubs. With snacks being one of the simplest categories that a pub can sell, requiring no preparation, only four per cent of pubs admitted to not stocking some form of bagged snacks.
Mintel's research showed that the market for crisps and snacks has experienced a recovery, following a period of slowdown from 2003 and 2006. Last year, sales grew by 5 per cent as the nation munched its way through £2.53bn worth of crisps and savoury snacks.
Emmanuelle Bouvier, senior market analyst with Mintel, said: "Despite the on-going development of new and exciting flavours, the traditional favourites still win hands-down. In fact, cheese & onion, ready salted and salt & vinegar, still account for almost two thirds of sales of standard crisps."
No lack of innovation
However the Food Report data suggests that the old favourites are not stifling innovation, with more than 10 per cent of respondents this time reporting that they were selling more exotic flavours, ranging from West Country bacon & cream cheese to Mexican chilli.
The trend surely reflects the rise of 'hand-cooked' and upmarket crisps from brands such as Kettle Chips, Tyrrells and Real Crisps.
As well as commanding higher prices and better margins for the publican, the new products have stimulated interest in the category as a whole often catching the eye of customer who may not have otherwise opted for a bagged snack.
The trend bubbled into the mainstream this year with the launch of Red Sky, a flour-flavour range made from 100 per cent natural ingredients by Walkers - although you'd struggle to know the snacks giant was behind them by looking at the packet.
More innovations have come from the likes of Glennans with its vegetable crisps, and a growing number of fruit snack ranges available to pubs.
And further excitement has come from an unlikely source in the shape of TV star Harry Hill. The comic, famous for his Saturday night TV Burp, has extended into his own snacks with the launch of Harry's Nuts! a Fairtrade brand from Liberation which was given a refresh last month.
Whatever next? Michael Macintyre's Macadmias?! Whatever happens, the market for bagged snacks in 2010 is unlikely to stand still.
