2o20 has been a very interesting year for breakfast cereals.
The breakfast cereal aisle is the one aisle I skip when I do my weekly grocery shopping. Not because I don’t eat breakfast, but because this segment had too much and too little choice all at the same time. That may sound contradictory.
The choice this aisle offered was purely contained to flavour. You had the usual suspects – vanilla, strawberry & chocolate and then other flavours like coconut, banana & berry. Consumers had too much choice (a minimum of 60 options at the average large format supermarket) and the paradox of choice struck.
People started eating less cereal for breakfast. They were also eating more breakfast bars and picking up breakfast to go from cafes. This was a double whammy for the industry as consumers wanted healthier choices as well – less added (natural or otherwise) sugar in their cereals, more fibre, more proteins etc – which the industry was not prepared for and this impacted breakfast cereal perception & consumption and resultantly, sales. According to a Forbes article in Aug 2019, the average US consumer has eaten 14 fewer bowls of cereal over the last 28 years and according to an article by Kerry in October 2019, US retail sales of cereal was expected to decline by 6% between 2017 & 2022.
In February 2020, before the pandemic brought the world to its knees, CNBC ran an article on the breakfast cereal sector and General Mills’ plan to revitalise this category in the US, the current largest breakfast cereal market . The article started off with a summary of key takeaways and the first was:
‘U.S. cereal sales have gone stale in recent years as consumer tastes change.’
Sales volume was in decline for the at-home breakfast cereal sector when the pandemic hit. But then, people started working from home, children started schooling from home and breakfast at home became a regular routine. With professionals still working (albeit from home; so, no time for a hot breakfast!), cafes still under lockdowns and takeaway breakfast joints competing for who has the longest queue, breakfast cereals saved the day for all the moms, dads and working professionals out there.
So the pandemic saved the breakfast cereal industry. It was almost as if the pandemic compelled this industry to listen to what their consumers were asking for (clue: no more flavour variations!) This last year saw an almost unprecedented pace of innovation in this sector. Instead of offering a plethora of yet more flavours, brands instead focussed on creating options along the ‘health spectrum’ spanning from indulgent to healthy.
While the new normal may see a drop in at home cereal consumption compared to that in 2020/early ’21, with kids going back to school, the drop may not be as steep as working from home is here to stay… and breakfast cereal also makes a great snack!
So what prompted this blog today? Weetabix just announced indulgent variants of their fibre rich cereal with Chocolate Melts Duo.
