Sweet spreads, comprising jelly/jam/preserves, honey, and peanut and other nut butters, saw sales increase 11% between 2000 and 2005. These sales, which include FDM channels, natural food stores and specialty/gift/department stores, have grown slightly but steadily in current terms every year since 2000, except from 2004 to 2005. From 2004 to 2005, sales in these channels remained stable at approximately $1.8 billion.
The slight growth each year in the sweet spreads category has not outpaced inflation, resulting in a general 2% decline in sales since 2000. A number of factors have influenced the sweet spreads market in the six years studied here. Firstly, the products do not usually stand on their own as food products. Rather, they are ingredients used in making sandwiches or snacks, garnishing ice cream or yogurt, or in baking, cooking, marinating, and other recipe preparations. As such, part of their success relies on the relative popularity of other ingredients or of cooking and baking techniques. Low-carb diets have not supported sales over time.
The products also lack an image of convenience. Many consumers eat breakfast and lunch on-the-go and manufacturers have invented a host of "grab and go" food items that provide instant gratification. While making a sandwich or a snack with peanut butter and honey or jelly is not a complex operation, it still takes longer than taking a ready-made snack bar or pastry to eat on the run. Understanding this difference, J.W. Smucker successfully launched "Uncrustables," pre-made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for grab-and-go eating, in 2004. Their success came at the expense of sweet spread sales, however, as consumers are trading the products for the ready-made items.
But, peanut butter, honey, jam and jelly remain household staples, working in combination for many lunches. Still, as more products are unveiled with these items as the main flavor, manufacturers must ask themselves how much peanut butter or fruit jam consumers will eat in a typical day before being "maxed out." The situation calls for innovations in the category from new, distinctive tastes to more convenient packaging.
This report defines sweet spreads as the following products:
- Peanut and other nut butter, including almond butter and cashew butter. Flavored nut butters (e.g. Nutella) are also included, as are peanut butters that are mixed with jelly in the packaging.
- Jam, defined as a thick mixture of fruit, sugar that is cooked until the pieces of fruit are very soft and almost formless.
- Jelly, defined as a soft, semisolid food substance with a resilient consistency, made by the setting of a liquid containing pectin or gelatin or by the addition of gelatin to a liquid, especially such a substance made of fruit juice containing pectin boiled with sugar. Jelly does not contain pieces of fruit, but is smooth and clear in appearance.
- Fruit butter, which is defined as a sweet spread for bread made by stewing fresh fruit with sugar and spices until it becomes thick and smooth. Fruit butters do not contain dairy products.
- Preserves, defined as fruit cooked with sugar and usually pectin, used as a spread or filling. Preserves differ from jam in that the chunks of fruit are medium to large rather than the texture of thick puree.
- Honey, in comb, liquid, or solid form. Flavored and unflavored honeys are included.
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