Núria has 20 years of professional experience in market research and analytics. She has spent most of her professional career in Kantar, occupying different roles. After 5 years of working in client service for local clients, she moved to Europanel as regional client manager for large FMCG multinationals. In the second stage of her professional life, she moved back to Spain as Product Director, to develop consumption panels and analytics tools such as shopper and media effectiveness. In 2021 she moved to a global role as head of consumption panels for In and Out of Home.
Out-of-Home Brings Growth for Drinks and Snacks Industry
Analysis of the Worldpanel Division’s OOH FMCG panels around the world found that Q2 2021 saw a stunning rebound, with total quarterly sales of $30.7bn. The recovery from the extreme lockdowns in Q2 2020, which more than halved OOH consumption globally, has been led by European markets. Markets such as the UK and Spain have seen OOH value grow by 176% and 147% respectively.
On the Way to Pre-Pandemic Levels
Ecommerce Should Retain High Performance
Work-From-Home Will Be the Only Change Affecting Our Eating & Drinking Habits
Treating ourselves and recreating the OOH experience drove first lockdown habits. As lockdowns were extended, we reduced the amount of baking, snacking and desserts, and we kept the extra occasions connected to OOH, especially through breakfast, delivery and drinks. As OOH makes a full recovery and restrictions are lifted, we can anticipate that some of these behaviors will fade. Our prediction is that the majority of meal occasions that migrated to in-home will return to OOH by Q1 2022, if restrictions are eased.
Snacking Is Linked to Enjoyment but We’ll Shift Back to Health
Once restrictions are relaxed, we expect healthy snacking will become more important again and we already spot signs. We can see an example in the UK; between March and July (the first UK lockdown) consumers were clearly deprioritizing health, but once restrictions eased from October to December, health as a reason for consumption grew again, especially positive health drivers such as “health benefits”, “more natural”, “provide a varied diet”.
Health will always be relevant in our snacking choices but that concept is likely to change. We can expect consumers to continue shifting from simply managing their health to a more wellbeing led approach as we observe in US, where beverage occasions have shifted to wider concepts like the healthiest choice possible, to feel good, or trust, rather than managed health needs such as low-carb or low-fat.
Meal Delivery Will Offer Big Competition for Ready-To-Eat Options
Unsurprisingly after being in and out of lockdowns, consumers are looking forward to going back to on-premise. Over 70% of consumers in China, France, Portugal, Spain and the UK said that meal delivery will never replace going out to a restaurant.
As a Result of the Pandemic, Sustainability is MORE Important for 49% of Shoppers!
Almost half of all shoppers think it is now more important, with 17% thinking it is much more important, and only 7% thinking it is less important.
Eco-Actives are shoppers who are highly concerned about the environment and make the most effort to reduce their waste. They feel an intrinsic responsibility to be more sustainable, follow the topic more actively, and have a greater awareness. Currently, they represent 22% of global FMCG shoppers, and we predict Eco-Actives will account for half the population by 2030.
85% of shoppers intend to reduce their carbon footprint in at least one way, the most likely to be packaging related i.e., buying more sustainable packaging and using refillable or re-usable products.
These 6 trends were part of consumer reality before COVID-19, but they have accelerated as a result of the pandemic and will stay in the post-pandemic world. Any player in the snacks and drinks industry will need to revisit strategic priorities to convert them into opportunities.
