Kid-Friendly Wellness Brands Can Boost Center-Store: Report
Grocers can harness kid-targeted health and wellness brands to reinvigorate center-store sales and address parents’ concerns about childhood obesity.
That’s the upshot of a new report from Information Resources Inc. The Chicago-based research firm’s Healthy Kids Report” looks at trends across 16 food and beverage categories, with suggestions for retailers to reinvigorate center-store with better-for-you sections. The report combines consumer panel research with sales data in the 16 “kid-driven” categories.
Better-for-you brands account for most of the sales growth in those categories. Volume sales of better-for-you products have risen 31% since 2002, compared to a mere 7% growth rate for mainstream products in the same categories. Many of the most successful product launches have promoted healthier consumption, per IRI.
Households with kids spend significantly more on healthier food and beverages than adult-only homes: Families have driven 20% growth across the 16 categories, compared to only 2% growth from adult-only households.
But most marketing for better-for-you brands targets adult tastes. That gap presents an opportunity for grocers to court families with special sections in center-store, in-store promotions with key manufacturers and private-label items geared to kids.
“Better-for-you innovation is driving volume growth in many of the most successful food and beverage categories,” said Thom Blischok, president of IRI Retail Solutions and Strategic Consulting, in a statement. “To understand the emerging trends … retailers need an in-depth, cross-category analysis that…goes beyond the individual category reviews they work with today.”
