Magazine: A reform era

Brigitta Kosaras
brand manager
Nestlé Hungária

According to Brigitta Kosaras, brand manager (Maggi) of Nestlé Hungária, in the market of spices and sauces the summer months are better than the rest, and the same is true for December. The company’s experience is that spice mixes are becoming more and more popular. They are easy to use and they make it simpler to try new flavours. Katalin Hajdics, marketing manager (food category) of Unilever Magyarország reckons that the growing popularity of barbecues is good not only for spice mixes, but for every other category affected by the trend. Sauces also sell better in the barbecue season – the market share of private label products is significant in this segment too, but the sales growth is primarily driven by branded products. What about retail channels? The sales share of discount supermarkets is growing, mainly to the detriment of hypermarkets and traditional shops. This trend also entails a sales increase for private label products. Many products are sold in promotional periods.

Márta Galácz
managing director
KOTÁNYI Hungária

Márta Galácz, managing director of KOTÁNYI Hungária Kft. told that their innovation work focuses on the current health trend. Right now they are busy putting two very exciting spice mix product ranges on the market: Kotányi Veggy targets those who like to cook vegetarian dishes, these products – available in three versions – contain no added salt; Kotányi’s other new product range is a turmeric-based one, which is also available in three flavour combinations and has no added salt in it. It is needless to say that both new product lines are made without flavour enhancers, preservatives and artificial colouring agents. In the last six months Kotányi put three chilli mill products on the market. As for the company’s three brands, they are positioned differently: Kotányi is an individualistic, discovering and unisex brand; Horváth Rozi products focus on the loving preparation of food as an expression of caring; the Orient brand offers great value for money. It is important for the company to educate consumers about spice and sauce use.

_{Sponsored illustration}

Ádám Somogyi
brand manager
Unilever Hungary

Unilever’s Knorr brand came out with 3 new spice mixes that contain no added salt. Knorr is also preparing for the barbecue season with new spice mixes. We learned from Ádám Somogyi, Unilever Magyarország’s brand manager (Globus) that they are giving the Globus brand an overhaul, as a first step of which ketchup products got a more eco-friendly packaging – transparent, recyclable plastic bottles that are also lighter. In the Hellmann’s barbecue sauce portfolio they launched a honey BBQ and a large-size BBQ sauce. In April Globus started a large-scale communication campaign, with a brand new concept that aims at repositioning the brand.

Nestlé’s innovation efforts are trying to find the flavours that are in line with the general taste of Hungarians the most. A result of this work is the latest grill spice mix from the company: this adds 3 new products to Nestlé’s spice mix portfolio that was introduced last year. The Grill spice mix is for those who like classic flavours, the BBQ mix can be the favourite of consumers who like stronger flavours and the Grill vegetable spice mix makes the vegetables served with grilled food tastier.

Éva Barabásné András
sales manager
Szilasfood

Éva Barabásné András, sales manager of Szilasfood reckons that food-themed television channels and culinary television programmes are popularising flavours people aren’t familiar with yet. Under the company’s Lucullus brand such products can be found on store shelves as Sichuan Pepper, Rose Pepper, Green Jalapeno and Habanero Chilli. Szilasfood Kft. also offers spice mixes for barbecues (Texas, Mediterranean shashlik, Kentucky), grill marinades (Mexican, Ranchero) and grill sauces (Salsa, Barbecue).

Nóra Czugéber
brand manager
Lacikonyha Magyarország

The spice market is still dominated by dried products in paper bag packaging. Nóra Czugéber, brand manager of Lacikonyha Magyarország Kft. told Trade magazin: in the case of certain spices and spice mixes prices are reducing, while in the universal condiment category shoppers are looking for large-sized products. This year the company put a new Ízmester mustard range on the market, in Deli, Honey, Russian, Czech and French versions.

Henrietta Csicselyné Biró
sales director
Thymos Hungária

Henrietta Csicselyné Biró, sales director of Thymos Hungária Kft. observed two important trends in the grill spice market: the formerly 4 months long season is now 6 months long, and there is growing demand for spice mixes that shoppers got to know in connection with barbecues to be available throughout the year. This year the company enters the market with Liquid Spice Marinades – these are glutamate- and preservative-free. They are available in 5 flavours and two sizes, 90g and 150g. Thymos Hungária’s spice bag product line is available in Meat Soup Spice Mix, Game Spice Mix and Ground Bay Leaves variants. These bags contain everything that you need to prepare a certain kind of dish in any quantity, all you need to do is throw the bag in and the spicing is done. At the end of the cooking you just have to take out the used spice bag. The company markets premium category products under the THYMOS brand name, while first-price products are called MARCO POLO.

István Domonkos
owner & managing director
Domi Fokhagyma

István Domonkos, owner and managing director of Domi Fokhagyma Kft. talked to our magazine about a trend change: the company’s food industry partners show growing demand for crushed garlic products. For home use the most popular Domi product is garlic cream in a tube, while in the barbecue season shoppers are looking for the company’s paper bag product that can be used for spicing 0.5kg of meat. Recently new garlic varieties have appeared in the market, e.g. Domi has a black garlic product. Since garlic isn’t only a spice but a medical herb too, the company launched a black and a white garlic capsules.

Dóra Benczúr
brand manager
Maresi Foodbroker

Maresi Foodbroker Kft.’s brand manager Dóra Benczúr informed us that they market the products of premium brands such as Bertolli olive oil, Maille Mustard, Kikkoman soy sauce, Tabasco® hot pepper sauce and Felix ketchup. She revealed that classic flavours like smoky and hot are still popular at barbecues, but Asian flavours, for instance soy sauce, are used more and more widely. Universal marinades are conquering kitchens, because people want food preparation to be as fast and simple as possible. Ms Benczúr told: premium gourmet franchise networks and delicatessen shop chains are having an ever-bigger share of the market, which shows that shoppers want to choose from more types of products than before. //