France

Ready meals has been experiencing price increases across the board over the past year, due to the increased costs for manufacturers in the light of global inflationary pressures, and with socio-political unrest leading to supply chain issues. On the…

The growth seen in pre-paid cards in 2023 is being supported by the popularity of closed loop pre-paid cards allocated for gifts. The number of such cards has increased in recent years, with the era of the pandemic seeing consumers allocate a part of…

Sauces is the best-performing subcategory in 2023, albeit still seeing mixed sales trends. For example, the hot weather of the summers in 2022 and 2023, along with mild winter periods, have not inspired consumers to cook themselves hot and hearty…

From many years, there has been a decline in the number of store cards in France, along with a lowering of the average spend. The economic context and inflationary pressures are notable factors here, along with the fact that French consumers…

Baseline trends are persisting in sweet spreads, heralding both value and volume growth for chocolate spreads and nut and seed based spreads. Concerning chocolate spreads, consumers appreciate the indulgence of such products as part of their…

Coffee was the main growth driver in hot drinks, in actual value terms at least, in 2023 as its value growth was strongly supported by the dramatic rate of inflation. Despite the recovery of tourism, on-trade sales were not so dynamic due to the…

At first sight, all seemed to be going rather well for hot drinks in France in 2023, at least in current value terms. Hot drinks remained one of the most dynamic markets in dry grocery products in supermarkets and hypermarkets. It also benefited from…

Overall, the other hot drinks category receives a lower level of support from most hot drinks players than coffee and tea. This weakness has been exacerbated by the fact that there are fewer at-home consumption occasions for other hot drinks since…

Retail value sales of tea continued to post appreciable value growth in 2023, but this was mostly due to the rising of cost of tea itself and its packaging, as well as the global impact of rampant inflation. Total volume sales contracted…

In 2023, bottled water displayed lower total volume growth than in the previous year, and what was initially expected. On-trade sales still progressed (thanks to a rather good season in the southern part of the country, though much less so in the…

Carbonates was amongst the most dynamic soft drinks categories in 2023. It is set to face another year with solid value growth, even after the offsetting post-pandemic effect of 2022. Total volume sales already surpassed the level of 2019 in 2022,…

Concentrates performed relatively well in 2023. Sugar, fruit and energy cost increases contributed to the strong growth in value in 2022 and inflation continued to contribute to significant growth in 2023. Volume growth was also high during the…

Energy drinks is the most dynamic category within soft drinks. With continuous strong increases in sales, constantly breaking old records and achieving new successes, energy drinks has stood out in the soft drinks market in recent years thanks to a…

Juice posted a decline in total volume sales in 2023, following a negative trend that is becoming structural, particularly in the prevailing gloomy economic context. A few contributory factors included the unusually high temperatures in spring and…

RTD coffee has inevitably been on the path to recovery after struggling during the COVID-19 crisis. But its reprieve has not been as strong as was expected. RTD coffee was one of the soft drinks categories hit hardest by the pandemic. With forecourt…

At first sight, RTD tea continued to progress strongly in current value terms in 2023. However, this was a result of the strong impact of inflation, with the rising cost of materials – imported tea, sugar and even water (with a growing risk of…

Soft drinks continued to perform well in total current value terms in France in 2023, though its performance was significantly more muted in volume terms. Volume sales were dampened by the high rate of inflation, the ongoing war in Ukraine and the…

Sports events piled up towards the end of the review period, which was good news for sports drinks at first sight. The men’s FIFA World Cup for football in Qatar at the end of 2022 had a positive impact on the category, with France reaching the final…

Climate activism is strong within France, reflected in consumers purchasing decisions, with many climate activists willing to pay more for sustainable products. As such, aligning initiatives to reduce carbon emissions and providing locally sourced…

In 2023, another hot summer again benefited sales of cooling fans, although not to the same extent as in the previous year due the to the category’s higher level of penetration. Cooling fans saw value sales grow more slowly than volumes in 2023…