What is Selling Now -
Unit and Dollar Sales Combined
Specialty Food & Beverage
Categories
by Combined Unit &
Dollar Growth
Leading
Inflation has caused changes in consumer
purchasing including trade-down and trade-out
behavior. Yet, 17 specialty categories fared very
well on a combined basis of dollars and units.
Eggs had by far the biggest rebound year, with
nearly equal 10 percent growth in sales and units.
This follows the disastrous 2022, in which sales
rose 23 percent but units fell 22 percent. A full
year of issues due to bird flu have worked their
way through the market, though egg facility
closures in 2023 from the largest producer, Tyson,
and the recent outbreak suggest that there could
be more turbulence ahead.
A basket of cooking-at-home staples stands out.
These are pasta sauces, seasonings, oil & vinegar,
baking mixes, other dairy and plant-based items,
and beans/grains/rice. In a year when total
volume was down 1.9 percent, it is impressive that
the first four on this list had sales above 10
percent and positive volume growth. We do not
expect such strong outperformance to continue—
more likely that growth will be well below 10
percent and units will trend toward the average
forecast at 1.4 percent in 2024.
Jerky and meat snacks has ridden the protein
wave better than almost any category, with
explosive growth from 2013 to 2017, and only one
bad year since then (2020). It is still a small cate-
gory ($491 million in 2023) but performed very well
the last three years, given that the protein comes
with a relatively high cost per ounce. Flavor,
format, and packaging development, as well as
being the epitome of convenience, has served this
category well.
% Change
% Change in
Unit Volume
% Change in
Dollar Volume
Unit & dollar
growth in points
Sauces (pasta, pizza) (Ss)
Eggs
Seasonings
Jerky & meat snacks
Oils & vinegars
Drink mixes & concentrates
Cookies & snack bars
Milk
Sweeteners
Baking mixes, ingredients, flours
Cream & creamers (Rf, Ss)
Fruit & vegetables (Ss)
Other dairy & plant-based items (Rf)
Baby & toddler food
Ice cream & novelties (Fz)
Condiments, dressings, marinades (Ss)
Beans, grains, rice (Ss)
-5 0 5 10 15 20
24.2
20.3
16.3
14.8
14.7
14.4
13.9
12.9
12.6
11.9
11.3
10.9
10.3
8.6
8.3
8.2
8.0
6.7%
10.4%
4.9%
1.8%
2.2%
-4.1%
2%
2%
2.8%
.7%
2.6%
-.9%
2.4%
-1.4%
.7%
-.5%
-.2%
17.5%
9.9%
11.4%
13%
12.5%
18.5%
11.9%
10.9%
9.8%
11.2%
8.7%
11.8%
7.9%
10%
7.6%
8.7%
8.2%
46 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM
