Multipack versions and the probiotic segment push yoghurt sales forward

Two contradicting trends characterise the yoghurt market: plain yoghurt sales decline and fruit yoghurt sales augment. It seems that in Hungary consumers expect this healthy product to be highly enjoyable too and to have a characteristic taste. On the contrary, in Western Europe consumers prefer plain yoghurts. Bernadett Strasser-Kátai, MONA Hungary’s owner-managing director is of the opinion that the reason behind this is culinary differences and that we Hungarians like to indulge ourselves. We learned from Beáta Kiss, Danone Kft.’s external relations director that one of their highlighted innovations last year was the introduction of Greek cream yoghurt. Barbara Mészáros, commercial director at Real Nature Kft. (the distributor of the Joya product family) told Trade magazin that in the case of soygurts and drinks the trend is exactly the other way round: plain versions managed to expand more, probably because these products can be used in cooking by milk- and lactose-sensitive consumers instead of milk and cream. Thanks to innovation work by manufacturers, the assortment of fruit yoghurts keeps widening, despite last year’s increase in prices. Emese Paragi, Sole-Mizo Zrt.’s brand manager says: – In the second part of last year the price of base material milk significantly elevated, therefore yoghurt manufacturers were also forced to raise prices. Private label products still only have an 11-12 percent share of the market, meaning that well-established and continuously supported brands managed to hold on to their positions. New introductions with a good positioning and a well-established marketing strategy were also able to set their feet on the market, e.g. MONA’s ProX yoghurt family, especially in the probiotic yoghurt drink category. Probiotic yoghurts are increasingly popular and yoghurts enriched with minerals and/or vitamins also appeared in shops, e.g. Danone’s Densia with calcium and vitamin D, from which one cup (125ml) contains 50 percent of an adult’s recommended daily intake. In the yoghurt category Danone is the market leader with an almost 70-percent share. The company’s goal is to bring the level of dairy product consumption to that of our neighbouring countries. In its communication strategy Danone is becoming more interactive with ideas such as Actimel’s thematic website or organising competitions on Facebook. Multipack solutions are more and more popular – they are economical and offer the chance to try new flavours. Sole-Mizo introduced its Mizo Boci probiotic yoghurt drink family in a 4X100g plastic bottle format; this March the new 250ml Mizo Boci strawberry and multifruit yoghurt drinks in a box appeared on store shelves. Mona Hungary Kft. vastly contributed to the development of the probiotic segment with its ProX probiotic yoghurt family. The company’s experience is that Hungarian consumers are starting to pay more attention to what they eat. Mona Hungary Kft. is committed to healthy eating and innovation. Their Nutrachol functional yoghurt family helps to keep or achieve a healthy cholesterol level: these products contain vegetable stearins, which have a structure similar to that of cholesterol and can help in reducing one’s cholesterol level. Dolce Vita dessert yoghurts bring back holiday fun, while ProX Smoothie fruit drinks only have natural ingredients and make a great alternative for fruit lovers in today’s fast-paced world. The soy products market is visibly moving in an organic direction. This year Real Nature Kft. will introduce new flavours and larger packaging units. Real Nature Kft. uses different fora for communicating the beneficial effects of soy; publishing and promoting recipes is crucially important in their strategy because these can expand the scope of soy’s utilisation. n