Low-calorie ice cream and sherbet maker Halo Top sold $324.2 million in new products in 2017, giving it the top spot on IRI’s 2017 New Product Pacesetter list by a long shot.
IRI’s New Product Pacesetters: Food & Beverage |
||
Brand |
Product category |
Year 1 sales (in millions) |
| Halo Top | Ice cream/sherbet | $324.2 |
| Good Thins | Crackers, salty snacks | $87.0 |
| Dunkin’ Donuts Iced Coffee | RTD tea/coffee | $67.1 |
| Nestle Splash | Bottled water | $55.2 |
| LIFEWTR | Bottled water | $50.4 |
| SmartMade by Smart Ones | Frozen dinners/entrees | $49.3 |
| Hershey’s Cookie Layer Crunch | Chocolate candy | $47.7 |
| Hillshire Snacking | Refrigerated lunches | $47.5 |
| Well Yes! | Soup | $47.3 |
| Cracker Barrel Macaroni & Cheese | Dry packaged dinners | $46.6 |
The list confirms the impact of the consumer trends that have emerged over the past few years — namely that Millennials, who command one-third of CPG spending power, want something different from the generations before.
Here are a few emerging trends confirmed in the IRI report:
- Small companies and new brands continue to take market share from large companies and existing brands. More than one-quarter of New Product Pacesetter sales were from small companies, compared to just 12% in 2013. In addition, 40% of food and beverage Pacesetters were new brands, as opposed to brand extensions (in 2013, only 11% were new).
- Millennials want premium products, and they’re willing to pay more for them. A full 85% of the 20 largest Pacesetter brands are priced higher than their category averages.
- Millennials want healthy, but also tasty foods. More than 40% say they eat healthy about half of the time. But they also like to splurge — 23% of the new food product launches (the largest category) were desserts. The desire for healthy-but-indulgent products is apparent in beverages as well with the popularity of sparkling and fruit-flavored bottled waters.
For more insights, and to see the Top 10 Pacesetters for Convenience Store Brands as well as the Top 10 Rising Stars in Food & Beverage, see the IRI report.
Related: Millennials’ Food Choices Reflect Their Values and Lifestyle
