They don’t leave you in the sauce

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2025/5.

Tímea Szűcs-Bundik
dressing brand manager
Unilever Hungary

“The FMCG spending of households increased at almost the same rate as food inflation, which contributed to the growth on the sauce market”,

reports Tímea Szűcs-Bundik, dressing brand manager of Unilever Magyarország Kft.

Consumer basket sizes increased, while at the same time the frequency of purchases dropped. This year the Globus brand will continue to focus on the basic flavours, while the wide Hellmann’s product range with 14 different barbecue sauces will be joined by an extra chilli mayonnaise sauce. In addition to this, in order to satisfy consumer demand the company’s best-selling product, Hellmann’s Cheddar Sauce will become available in large size too during the grilling season.

Creative grillers

Rita Bazsó
marketing director
Univer Product

Rita Bazsó, marketing director of Univer-Product Zrt. says the plastic bottle format is still the most popular in the basic and flavoured mayonnaise, mustard and ketchup segment, while the popularity of stand up pouches is also growing, as they make it easy to squeeze every last drop of sauce from the packaging.

“Barbecues are a great place to be creative and people like to experiment. They have discovered that our Erős Pista garlic cream is perfect for marinating and adds a new, spicy flavour to meats and vegetables”,

says Rita Bazsó.

For this year’s barbecue season they are preparing with Erős Pista co-brand products.

Although the share of discounters is rising, the share of private label products in the barbecue sauce market did not increase last season compared to branded products

Selected delicacies

KOCH’S is in the early phase of promoting its sauces and other internationally recognised premium brands (Develey, BBQUE) of the group.

Ujházi Attila
ügyvezető igazgató
Koch’s Torma Hungária

“The flavour spectrum of our sauces is really broad and every year we add several new innovations. We are launching lots of new products for the barbecue season, reflecting consumer needs and market trends. Some of these – the very successful exclusive KOCH’S mayonnaise and mustard lines – are already available in shops”,

In addition to traditional flavours, there is growing interest in stronger, more distinctive flavours

Do you fancy something spicy?

Júlia Siróné Váradi
business development director
Tormaricum

Júlia Siróné Váradi, business development director of Tormaricum Kft. reckons Hungarian consumers like spicier, more special table sauces, marinades and spice mixes more and more and she thinks it is a positive market development.

“Besides traditional flavours, there is also growing interest in stronger, more characteristic products such as wasabi or chilli horseradish, different burger sauces with distinctive spices and spicy dips”,

says Júlia Siróné Váradi.

Tormaricum Kft. plans to expand its product range this season with barbecue sauces, meat marinades and condiments. The first of these will be a pepper and mayonnaise horseradish sauce in a bottle, which is perfect for hot dogs, hamburgers and grilled meats, but also makes a great dipping sauce.

It doesn’t have to be meat

Henrietta Csicselyné Biró
sales director
Thymos Hungária

Today barbecuing isn’t only popular among meat lovers, but also with people who wish to lead a healthy lifestyle or are vegans, says Henrietta Csicselyné Biró, sales director of Thymos Hungária Kft.

“This fact is also supported by sales data from last year, which show rising demand for liquid marinades. Our marinades aren’t only suitable for seasoning different kinds of meat, but are also great seasonings for vegetables and cheeses”,

adds the sales director.

Free from preservatives, sodium glutamate and flavour enhancers – oil-based Thymos seasoning marinades are available in two different formats and in several flavours. The popular Marco Polo product range consists of 4 flavours (grill, chicken, tomato and garlic, beer and honey) of 90g liquid marinades.

Hungarian consumers are increasingly open to discovering new things, which opens up new horizons for expanding flavour portfolios

Premium stays strong

Anett Monori
brand manager
Maresi Foodbroker

Maresi Foodbroker Kft. is in the fortunate position of being a distributor of sauces and grilling products from major international brands such as Maille Dijon mustard, Kikkoman soy sauce, Felix ketchup, Tabasco hot chilli sauce and Bertolli olive oil – for these there are relatively few (equally high-quality) alternatives among private label products, says Anett Monori, brand manager of Maresi Foodbroker Kft.

“We are trying to implement as many promotions as possible. In the case of sauces fortunately we haven’t experienced a weakening of purchasing power in the last two years, with some brands achieving a 25% increase in volume compared to the previous year”,

we learn from the brand manager.

This year the company is launching new Felix BBQ sauces and Kikkoman sauces.