Magazine: Consumers spread less margarine on their slice of bread

– Base material prices have grown like never before and as a result product prices augmented, so a difficult year awaits distributors – says Ágota Puskás, category operations assistant manager with Unilever Hungary. Natura Margarin Kft. distributes the Linco and Bords Eve brands.

Their marketing director informed that volume sales fell by 900 tons in the last 2 months – it is true though that people always bake less after the Christmas period. Good news is that private label margarines were unable to gain ground to the detriment of branded products last year. This would have been impossible without brand manufacturers’ constant price promotions and in-store activities. Plain 500g spreadable margarines are still the most popular, followed by salty and light versions; among baking margarines the 250g cube format is the winner. Hungarians like their margarine: in the hard fats category margarines represent 86 percent and butter, butter spreads and household fats make up the remaining 14 percent. Unilever Hungary put Rama Gold on the market and will launch a promotion campaign in July: the first 100,000 shoppers who send in the collected barcodes of Rama baking margarine will win a special recipe book. Natura Margarin Kft. focuses on Linco Light and Bords Eve from their portfolio, they are excellent offers for consumers. Viktor Németh, the managing director of Biopont Kft. told Trade magazine that their Biopont organic margarine is guaranteed to be chemical-free. This year the product appears in shops in a new packaging: in a smaller and more stylish 250g version that reflects the product’s premium quality. They hope that in a smaller size the product will be affordable for those who formerly did not buy it because of its price.