The flavours of Christmas

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/8-9.

Iván Nagy
founding owner
SunCity

“There is also a noticeable shift in price ranges: some consumers are consciously looking for high quality, functional or exotic spices, while another segment remains price-sensitive”,

says Iván Nagy, founder and owner of SunCity Fűszer Kft.

Shoppers aren’t stockpiling as much

Ágnes Szűts
marketing manager
Kotányi Hungária

Among sales channels discounters continue to perform well, but as a new trend domestic chains are also acquiring new customers and basket numbers are growing. According to Ágnes Szűts, marketing manager at KOTÁNYI Hungária Kft., this indicates that consumers are slowly returning to daily shopping, where they have better control over the range of products they buy and their prices.

“However, the shopping baskets of consumers who have recently started visiting domestic chains contain more products, but these are cheaper than the average”,

she adds.

Christmas is an important period for branded products.

Sense and emotion

Nóra Czugéber
brand manager
Lacikonyha Magyarország

The current economic situation is heavily testing the marketability of basic products, states Nóra Czugéber, senior brand manager of Lacikonyha Magyarország Kft.

“Consumers easily switch to cheaper alternatives, so it is essential that our products are available at competitive prices”,

she emphasises.

Henrietta Csicselyné Biró, sales director of Thymos Hungária Kft., approaches the market from an emotional angle. She believes that changes in the world and negative events have made emotional connections increasingly important in people’s lives. Meals have become important in our everyday lives, as they allow us to relive pleasant memories again and again.

“Based on our experience, home cooking is now more widespread among consumers, which requires not only basic ingredients but also essential spices”,

she explains.

Inspiration for every occasion

KOTÁNYI Hungária Kft. has prepared for the second half of the year with several new products. The Kotányi brand will be launching truffle salt in iconic mill packaging. Kotányi’s new products for 2025, high-protein, vegan ready-made meal bases called No Need for Meat can also help with holiday preparations. Kotányi’s new product, vanilla paste made with real Bourbon vanilla debuted last Christmas and is sure to be popular this season as well. The Horváth Rozi brand has two new products for the autumn-winter season. Both brands regularly post recipes online and in social media to provide inspiration for everyday meals and holiday dishes.

In spite of financial uncertainty, consumers continue to seek out high-quality spices, particularly around festive periods

Renewal both inside and outside

According to Lacikonyha Magyarország’s experience, demand has grown for economical product sizes. As a reaction, last year they introduced their box format spice mixes, which immediately became popular. This year they are adding 1kg Ízmester sauces, XXL French mustard, XXL pearl onion and cucumber pickles, and in the autumn Lacikonyha’s 18-piece stock cube range will be launched – the latter are special due to their low salt content. The Ízmester brand has recently updated the full product range and modified several recipes to better adapt to changing consumer tastes. The rebranding will be complete by the end of the year, with a new design and serving suggestions on the packaging.

From soup to cake

Henrietta Csicselyné
Biró
sales director
Thymos Hungária

Thymos will soon come out with Italian pasta spice mixes and Chinese spice mixes. It is important for the company to make cooking easier with natural ingredients, so they are adding dried, ground tomatoes and dried red onions to the product portfolio. Soup is an essential part of any meal: this is why they are complementing the popular Meat Broth Spice Mix in filter bags with a Green Herb Spice Mix.

As for those who love to bake, the company offers dried, ground Orange Peel as a new product. In addition to basic ingredients such as cocoa powder, vanilla sugar, baking powder and dried yeast, their range also includes cinnamon sugar, 11 types of flavours and 7 kinds of colours.

Changes in cooking and baking trends such as the rise of street food, BBQ, and fermentation have led to the growing popularity of new types of spice blends

Experience, convenience and quality

SunCity Fűszer Kft.’s innovation work is driven by evolving consumer tastes, gastronomic trends and increasingly high standards for home cooking. They strive to develop products that offer experience, convenience and quality all at once. In the second half of the year they are rolling out a new three-product line called SPG, which not only has exciting new products for grilling and BBQ enthusiasts, but is also the perfect choice for seasoning at home. At the same time a new, practical and space-saving flat-pack format has also been added to their range