A new report from independent international food and drink consultancy firm Food for Thought (FFT) shows that PepsiCo represents 30.71% of the Western European savory snack market – covering potato chips, nuts, savory biscuits and extruded snacks.
The snack titan is followed by European consortium Finalrealm with 8.48% market share and Intersnack with 6.71%.
However, while PepsiCo has significant market dominance, Alan Deane, co-founder of FFT, suggested growth potential is more likely found in its soft drinks business.
“In Europe at least, sales turnover and market dominance are not necessarily the same thing. PepsiCo’s dominance in the European potato crisp market does not produce nearly as much end-market sales turnover as do soft drinks, in which it has a substantially smaller market share, and hence potential to make further progress,” Deane told BakeryandSnacks.com.
The own label, potato chip surge
The overall market is set to surge at an average annual real rate of 2.22%, according to the report.
The UK is the largest market – representing 38% in 2011, followed by Germany (15%) and France (9%). These three country markets make up 61% of the total market.
The report showed that between 2006-2011 Denmark’s snacks market surged at an average annual growth rate of 6.9%. This was followed by growth from Italy (3.2%) and Finland (2.8%).
Within the overall market, potato crisps/chips makes up 42%, followed by extruded snacks (23%), nuts (22%) and savory biscuits (13%).
Looking ahead, Deane said: “The fastest product growth market in Western Europe over the 2011-2014 period is expected to be in potato crisps, with a real annual growth rate of 2.6% producing yearly gains of €231 million [$302.2m] in current prices.”
Deane said extruded snacks will be the next performer albeit a smaller market followed by modest growth from nuts and savory biscuits.
He added that own label is making 'in roads'.
"The own label share of snacks in the retail market is already a high 27.4%, and as with many other products, can only be expected to continue to grow as retailers move to higher quality products then in the past."