What do top-selling new foods and beverages have in common? Prepared Foods breaks it down with Joan Driggs, Circana’s vice president for content and thought leadership. Driggs identifies the underlying tastes, trends and topics behind Circana’s top New Product Pacesetters in the multi-outlet retail and convenience store channels.

This summer saw Circana release its 29th report and note that the 2023 New Product Pacesetters garnered a notable $6.1 billion in combined year-one sales across food, beverage, and non-food products, slightly less than the $7 billion achieved by 2022 Pacesetter sales. Driggs notes that Circana doesn’t start full-year tracking on a product until it reaches at threshold of 30% minimum national distribution.

The Top 10 food and beverage New Product Pacesetters for 2023 were:

1. Similac® 360 Total Care®
2. PRIME® Hydration
3. Starry™
4. OREO® Frozen Desserts
5. Starbucks® by Nespresso® for Vertuo™
6. GHOST® Energy
7. Doritos®/Cheetos®/Sunchips® Minis
8. Black Rifle Coffee®
9. Electrolit®
10. Kevin’s Natural Foods™

In this exclusive podcast, Driggs calls out several interesting trends:

Year-Over-Year Comparison: A year ago (calendar 2023 looking back on 2022 items), at-home testing kits generated more than $1.5B in sales and represented a dominant theme. This year, baby products are back and more normal overall purchasing patterns have returned. With inflation, consumers are looking more closely at each spend and wanting value (beyond cost) demonstrated by more benefits, convenience and/or a premium product experience.

At-Home Behavior: IRI’s earlier merger with The NPD Group (to form Circana) brings NPD’s deep insights about at-home consumer food prep and eating behaviors. Circana noticed, for example, that the morning daypart has been the healthiest contributor to fast-casual sales. It’s not surprising to see consumers still preferring to consume more meals at home (overall) and looking for convenience breakfast options. In part, that’s demonstrated by the popularity of Black Rifle Coffee and Starbucks by Nespresso® for Vertuo. Using NPD’s legacy kitchen equipment insights data, Circana noticed that sales of casserole dishes soared in 2023, a nod to more “heritage” comfort meals. Also noticing that trend have been processors like Conagra Brands, which developed a comfort classics line of Birds Eye Voila! Sheet Pan meals.

Food: Top food sellers demonstrate consumer interest for premium indulgence, more snack options and more natural, ultra-convenient meal solutions.

Beverage: It’s not hard to spot hydration as a major theme. Consumers are back out and active and looking for hydration and sports nutrition solutions. Also popular are coffee and functional beverages (ie, GHOST Energy).

Five-year Overview: During the past five years, Driggs notes that the industry’s largest companies (annual sales > $6B) scaled back new product innovation, particularly during COVID. That allowed small companies (annual sales $500M and less) to get their foot in the door. During a five-year window, smaller companies accounted for 47% of top Pacesetter sales. One example has been Kevin’s Natural Foods, which was acquired by Mars in 2023.

Convenience Store / Alternative Channel: Beverages continue to sell well in convenience stores as many brands choose the channel for new product trials with more “single-serve” exposure within a display wall. Except for an Oreo product, beverages accounted for all other top-selling Pacesetter items in convenience stores. Top sellers include Alani Nu, Voodoo Ranger Juice Force, Starry, Gatorade Fit, = Liquid Death Water, GHOST Energy, Black Rifle Coffee, Gatorlyte Zero and Simply Spiked Lemonade.