Love it or hate it
Last week we reported on the Brexit related price row between Unilever and Tesco, which saw dozens of Unilever brands pulled from the supermarket’s website.
As a result, panic that the UK was facing a Marmite shortage struck, and the internet went into meltdown with the coining of #marmitegate.
Now, IRI sales analysis has settled the ‘love it or hate it’ debate for good; data from the FMCG market analyst reveals that 129,000 more jars of Marmite were sold in the UK over the last week, compared to the same period last year – that’s a rise of £335,000 in sales, or a 61 per cent increase.
Martin Wood, head of strategic insight, retail, at IRI, comments, “Such huge sales increases are unusual. The publicity clearly made Marmite top of mind for regular buyers.
“Marmite is one of those irreplaceable brands that is as much loved as it is hated. Last week shoppers were showing how much they loved it.”
In other UK referendum news, research has revealed the top 10 most common Brexit fears that Brits have, and two of the top three concern food and drink.
Conducted as part of an ongoing study into how Britons feel Brexit will impact their finances, vouchercodespro.co.uk provided respondents with a list of possible outcomes and asked them to select all that applied.
In first place, European foods being banned/becoming unavailable in the UK – such as croissants and Gouda cheese – was identified by 17 per cent, while third place (16 per cent) went to European drinks/alcohol being banned/becoming unavailable in the UK, eg prosecco, cava and Champagne.
All this uncertainty is certainly making Brits think with their stomachs. However, with ‘drivers will have to drive on the opposite side of the road’ also featuring in the top 10, the results should be taken with a pinch of salt!
