What do the top-selling new foods and drinks have in common? Prepared Foods Joan Driggs, Circana’s vice president of content and thought leadership, breaks down: Driggs identifies the underlying preferences, trends and topics behind Circana’s top new product pacesetters in the multi-outlet retail and convenience store channels.
Circana released its 29th report this summer, reporting that its 2023 New Product Pacesetters generated an impressive $6.1 billion in first-year sales across food, beverage and non-food products, just below the $7 billion in sales generated by the Pacesetters in 2022. Driggs noted that Circana doesn’t begin tracking products throughout the year until they reach a threshold of at least 30% national distribution.
Here are the top 10 new food and beverage product pacesetters for 2023:
- Similac® 360 Total Care®
- PRIME® Hydration
- Starry™
- OREO® Frozen Dessert
- Starbucks® by Nespresso® for Vertuo™
- Ghost® Energy
- Doritos®/Cheetos®/SunChips® Mini
- BLACK RIFLE COFFEE®
- Electrolit®
- Kevin’s Natural Foods™
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a Prepared Foods An interview with Joan Driggs, VP of Content and Thought Leadership at Circana.
Listen to other episodes Prepared Food Podcast.
In this exclusive podcast, Driggs points out some interesting trends.
Year-over-year comparison: A year ago (2023: A Look Back at 2022 Products), home testing kits were a major theme, driving over $1.5 billion in sales. This year, baby products are back and overall buying patterns are more normalized. Inflation has caused consumers to look more closely at each spend, seeking value (beyond cost) demonstrated by more benefits, convenience, and/or a premium product experience.
Actions at home: IRI previously merged with The NPD Group to form Circana, bringing with it NPD’s deep insights into consumer food preparation and eating habits at home. For example, Circana found that the morning hours are the most contributors to fast-casual sales. It’s no surprise that consumers still tend to prefer eating at home (overall) and are looking for convenient breakfast options. This is evident in the popularity of Black Rifle Coffee and Starbucks by Nespresso® for Vertuo. Using NPD’s traditional kitchen equipment insights data, Circana found that sales of casserole dishes are set to surge in 2023, driving the popularity of more “traditional” home cooking. Processors such as Conagra Brands have also noticed this trend, leading the company to develop a line of Birds Eye Voila! Sheet Pan meals for home cooking staples.
food: Top-selling foods demonstrate consumer interest in premium indulgences, more snacking options and more natural and highly convenient meal solutions.
drink: Hydration is clearly a major theme, as consumers get outside and become more active and seek hydration and sports nutrition solutions, with coffee and functional drinks (such as GHOST Energy) also popular.
Five-year overview: Driggs points out that over the past five years, the industry’s largest players (over $6 billion in annual sales) have scaled back on new product innovation, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This has allowed smaller players (under $500 million in annual sales) to enter the market. Over the five-year period, small companies accounted for 47% of top pacesetter sales. One example is Kevin’s Natural Foods, which was acquired by Mars, Inc. in 2023.
Convenience Stores/Alternative Channels: Beverage sales continue to be strong in convenience stores as many brands opt for this channel to increase “single-serve” exposure on the shelves for new product trial. With the exception of Oreo products, all of the top-selling pacesetter products in convenience stores were beverages. Top-selling products include Alani Nu, Voodoo Ranger Juice Force, Starly, Gatorade Fit, = Liquid Death Water, Ghost Energy, Black Rifle Coffee, Gatorite Zero and Simply Spiked Lemonade.