Magazine: Average prices are likely to keep increasing on the biscuit market

There has been a drastic increase in flour prices recently, making the life of biscuit distributors harder. Retail was very unwilling to accept increased prices. Now flour prices are decreasing but other costs of producing biscuits are on the rise.

Rita Habuda-Salyámosy, marketing director of Maresi Foodbroker Kft. (the distributor of Bahlsen biscuits) told us that the introduction of the ‘crisp tax’ is likely to increase biscuit prices further. Detki Keksz’s sales have not been affected by the recession yet – informed owner-managing director Olga Pavlova. Their main channel of expansion is discount stores, where they are able to increase sales especially in the PL category. Detki also receives lots of orders to produce breakfast bars for the higher price category. Hypermarkets are the other important channel for biscuit sales: the best promotions can be organised and the selection of PL and first-price products keeps expanding here as well, resulting in increased sales. Detki Keksz recently came out with the Mesefit biscuit family that consists of four breakfast bars and they also put an organic baby biscuit on the market; their third novelty is the Oat Dream product range. Detki Keksz will soon start increasing its production capacity and the new facility will be completed by April 2013. Maresi Foodbroker distributes Bahlsen and Leibniz products and both of them are doing well. Bahlsen is present in several categories and the different products are developing differently: besides the premium HIT and Hobbits brands, their newly introduced Bahlsen Pick Up snack product and Leibniz biscuits are also given highlighted attention. The latter two are low in sugar and have high butter content – these advantages are communicated to consumers with in-store tasting sessions.