1 Consumers may say they are choosing more healthy foods, but they still want treats
2 More than 50% of consumers think it’s important to see brands featured on dessert menus
3 Deals are important but there are other ways to increase spend too
4 Size matters – the importance of portion control
5. Savoury is still where the vast majority of sales are
6. A place for meal deals and promotions
1 Consumers may say they are choosing more healthy foods, but they still want treats
While survey after survey tell us that we’re all eating much more healthily and cutting back on sugar and fat, the fact that every high street or shopping centre has a dessert parlour of some shape or size tells a different story.
Impulse purchases have always been big in the convenience environment and desserts as a treat are paying dividends for forecourt retailer Fuzail Patel.
Patel’s Yoh Sweet concept serves mouthwatering sweet treats such as giant cookies and gooey brownies topped with Cadbury chocolate chunks and Oreo cookies. They retail at around £6.50 each, which might sound a lot but he says they are ‘massive desserts’.
Patel and his family run four petrol stations in Yorkshire and Greater Manchester. Yoh Sweet can be found in his Rotherham and Wakefield sites and will shortly go live in the Irlam forecourt.
The displays instantly stand out thanks to the pink and yellow Yoh Sweet branding and the chiller display with four shelves packed with desserts. Patel says turnover from the counters is between £1,500 and £2,500 a week with profit margins of around 45%. “It all depends on where you are trading, but for us desserts are very profitable.”
Patel says he thinks customers enter his shops not intending to buy a treat but once they see the display they can’t help themselves. “All sorts of people buy the desserts but I am always amazed when I see bodybuilders come in and buy them. We have a gym close by one of our sites so they come in afterwards; it seems they have treat days just like the rest of us.”
At the moment some of the desserts are made in house and some are bought in, but it is Patel’s intention to eventually do everything in house. This will come when he scales up the business – with the Irlam opening and via tie ups with the likes of Just Eat and Deliveroo. He is also keen to offer the concept to other retailers and says he is currently in talks with two big groups.
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2 More than 50% of consumers think it’s important to see brands featured on dessert menus
According to a recent Nestlé Professional report called ‘Breaking Dessert Barriers’, more than half of respondents who have a dessert when eating out think it is important to see a familiar name they know and/or trust. This rises to 72% among those aged 16-24, highlighting Gen Z as a prime audience for boosting sales of branded desserts.
Nestlé’s research covered out-of-home environments including cafes and casual dining restaurants but it is just as relevant to convenience and forecourt stores that offer a food-to-go service.
The aforementioned Yoh Sweet uses branded chocolate in some of its desserts and Country Choice’s Boston’s doughnut concept includes a hand-topped range which means retailers can add an element of customisation, as well as premiumisation, to their doughnut offer.
Phil Carratt, head of marketing and strategy, says: “With indulgent fillings and toppings, they are quick and easy to prepare and enable retailers to create a real point of difference while competing in the premium doughnut sector. Branded toppings include Lotus Biscoff, Cadbury, Oreo, McVitie’s Jaffa Cakes, Jammie Dodgers and Fox’s, as well as three types of chocolate chips, mini beans, fudge pieces and crunchy pieces.”
The strength of branding is illustrated by the experience of Joe Hockenhull, managing director of Top 50 Indie Hockenhull Garages.
He introduced Pete’s Treats to one of his sites a few years ago – Shell St Peters in Wigston. The name Pete’s Treats was chosen because of that St Peters location as well as the fact that the company’s chairman and owner is Peter Hockenhull.
At the Pete’s Treats counter consumers select their favourite chocolate bar – including Mars bars, Kinder Bueno and Reece’s peanut butter cups – and it gets mixed into a milkshake.
“We were shocked at the positive reaction we got from the milkshakes,” says Joe Hockenhull. “They are made using the same milkshake machines that McDonald’s use, courtesy of Taylors. We put our own spin on it with customers selecting a chocolate bar, us blending it and them drinking it – without the chocolate bar the shakes are vanilla.”
He says the success has continued, so much so that the shakes are now available at most of their sites, with Forecourt Trader of the Year winner The Stage in Leicester being the most successful.
“We’re now famous for our milkshakes in Leicester,” says Hockenhull. “After the success at The Stage we decided to take it to the next step with gelato ice creams, which have now made the site known for having a dessert parlour alongside our other foodservice offers.
“All of the offers complement one another and give the customers a full-scale experience with dinner and dessert all available at once. We are really concentrating on sweet treats on the go at the minute as it is a market with good growth and excellent profit margins.”
The Hockenhull sites also have Tango Ice Blast machines but the company is moving more towards a local company called Dr Slush. “They are great value and there are over 20 flavours available to choose from,” says Hockenhull.
Dan Perry, director of operations at Ron Perry A19 Services, says they have ventured into the world of slushies, with varying degrees of success.
“We found, back in 2020, when we first put in the Tango Ice Blasts at our north and south sites, they were initially quite popular in the hot summer months but the drop-off in the winter took the average sales to a point where we pulled out. We are currently selling the Calippo Burst as a slushie offering. The price of the gas with the slushies seemed to shoot up in about 2021 which has led to some fairly thorough ongoing cost versus profit analysis with the slushies.
“We also do F’Real milkshakes at both our sites and unlike the slushies, the sales are fairly steady in the winter months, with a decent peak in the summer.
“In terms of sweet food to go, we tend to find that the savoury foods seem to be more popular on the whole, but the F’Real is a fantastic product and it does seem to generate other sweet treat sales in a typical customer’s basket spend, such as a flapjack or the donuts that we offer in store. I do feel that there is space in the food-to-go market for product innovations in the sweet treat sector and we’re always looking for the ’next big, delicious thing’ to offer to our customers.”
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3 Deals are important but there are other ways to increase spend too
The Co-op is currently running a deal offering customers two pizzas, a tub of Ben & Jerry’s plus the chance to win Co-op Live tickets for £5 for Co-op members and £6 for non-members. This is a stunning offer when you consider that the rrp for a single tub of Ben & Jerrys is £5.75.
In Leicester, Hockenhull Garages runs deals which Joe Hockenhull says are a huge success. “Our wrap and milkshake deals and family feast deals are very popular. With the family feast deal, customers get two sides, a Stone Willy’s pizza and two shakes for £20.99. The savoury and sweet food-to-go offers complement each other well.”
While value will be important to many shoppers, temptation will be too hard to resist for others. Nestlé Professional’s report revealed that there are quite a few ways to encourage shoppers to spend more on desserts. These include a larger portion size, which can be shared, as well as creations that are hard to make at home. The aforementioned inclusion of brands gives a premium message, while customisation options and desserts that play into a sense of nostalgia can also increase sales.
Country Choice’s Carratt says one of the best ways to promote sweet treats is via a meal deal that links them to the purchase of a tea, coffee or other hot beverage.
“Positioning sweet treats near the relevant machine with cross category link deals clearly marked is a great idea. Our experience is that most sweet treat purchases are made on impulse and so we provide retailers with marketing and POS that helps them to capitalise on this. For example, cookies can get lost on standard retail shelving so we have designed cardboard units that can be placed near the till point to encourage impulse purchases. Sales of impulse items can be doubled if they are positioned in the correct area.”
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4 Size matters – the importance of portion control
Some people will easily be able to finish off a whole tub of Ben & Jerrys or Häagen-Dazs on their own, but others are looking for portion control and more bite-size treats.
Single-serve ice cream is a good example – whether bought singly or in a multipack.
Mars, in particular, is enjoying great multipack sales through the independent convenience channel with value sales of its multipacks increasing by 89% and total sales up 25% over the past three years (IRI data).
Kerry Cavanaugh, general manager at Mars Chocolate Drinks and Treats, says: “In 2024, the weather had a clear impact on the sales of impulse bars in convenience, however, it was interesting to see a significant spike in multipacks ice cream sales all year round, and particularly within the frozen food category during the autumn months.
“This suggests that ice cream is no longer reserved for those looking for a treat to cool down with during the summer months, but it is also the dessert of choice for shoppers opting for nights in and group gatherings. With this in mind, we are encouraging retailers to ensure they have an all-year-round ice cream presence, offering a wide range across both impulse and multipacks.”
This year Mars has extended its multipack range with the launch of the Snickers White Ice Cream bar in packs of four.
Cavanaugh says: “Snickers has long been a hero product of our range in the UK, and the white flavour has proved to be extremely popular in other European countries. In Germany, the Snickers White Ice Cream bar runs at 70% of the original Snickers rate of sale. “
This year Mars will also be launching a Galaxy Ice Cream impulse bar into wholesale and convenience channels.
Meanwhile, Häagen-Dazs may be very well known for its pint tubs but it also offers Mini Cups, which cater to the 31% of consumers who enjoy small indulgences and treats on a weekly basis (FMCG Gurus).
Nicole Whelan, head of Häagen-Dazs UK, says: “Our core range of indulgent ice cream has always been a firm favourite, continuing to see +13% sales growth year-on-year (Nielsen) and demonstrating the importance that these small but premium luxuries play for UK households.”
But perhaps the ultimate in portion controlled ice cream comes from Over the Moo with its pouches of bite-size ice creams.
These are plant-based ice cream chunks covered in dark chocolate. Resealable bags contain eight ‘bangin’ bites with a ‘Too bloody good to share’ message on pack. The calorie count of less than 30 per bite means that even if you gobble the whole lot, you haven consumed too many calories.
There are three flavours: chocolate, vanilla and caramel and they retail at £3.99 a pack.
Over the Moo founder, Simon Goodman, says: “Many say that our portion-controlled treats are a little reminiscent of latter-day choc ices which we see as a positive comparison with ‘newstalgia’ remaining such a hot trend. Yet, while choc ices prioritised convenience, our primary focus remains coupling great taste and an enviably low-calorie format (less than 30 calories a bite) with a clear sustainable agenda because this is a lactose-friendly offering actively campaigning to reduce our dependence on traditionally farmed cows’ milk.”
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5. Savoury is still where the vast majority of sales are
There’s no doubting the growing popularity of sweet treats in the food-to-go arena but savoury products still vastly outsell them.
A case in point is the Rollover hot dog brand. Dan Perry from Ron Perry A19 Services says: “Rollover is one of our signature products at Ron Perry A19. We first put Rollover hot dogs in at our north and south sites back in 2011, and have never looked back. The key thing for me is that the Rollover product and process, both from a consumer and a retailer point of view, is simple, easy and delicious.”
They say the proof of the pudding is in the eating and customers at Ron Perry A19’s two sites chomp their way through a thousand dogs a week.
The signature classic hot dog is a massive seller but Perry says the range has been enhanced with new product lines such as the chilli cheese hot dog, the Lincolnshire breakfast hot dog and the recently launched Veggie Dog as a hot food-to-go vegan option.
“In the past few years we’ve been delighted to roll out the wider Rollover selection in dedicated Rollover hot cabinets such as the breakfast muffin, the cheeseburgers, chicken burgers and, most recently, Rollover’s foray into chicken nuggets and jalapeno poppers. The signature hot dog is the most popular across the board and is incredibly popular throughout the day, whereas the burgers and such tend to peak at lunch and early evenings. The entire Rollover range is generally popular across our varied customer demographic, with the businessman in a suit equally as likely to grab a hot dog from our hot cabinet as an HGV driver.”
To really help push Rollover sales – Perry’s target is 2,000 hot dogs a day by 2027 – they have what the locals call “Ron’s Big Sausage” at their southbound site. This is a huge three-dimensional Rollover advertising board on an HGV trailer, parked on the company’s development land to showcase the signature hot dogs and increase brand awareness on the drive on to the site.
Tony Owen, general manager at Rollover, says promotions are essential for capturing consumer attention and driving sales in the forecourt channel.
“Providing value through promotions is key to influencing consumer purchase decisions. Forecourts should utilise meal deals and multi-buy offers by expanding their offering to include hot food to go, therefore providing more value to consumers.
“For in-store promotional activities to be successful, forecourts must create a seamless path to purchase with pos material at every touchpoint, both externally and internally. Loyalty schemes are also an effective promotional method, as they build rapport with consumers and increase retention rates. At Rollover we use a combination of in-store promotions, partnerships and social media to effectively engage with our consumers and build lasting loyalty.”
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6. A place for meal deals and promotions
Rollover has a great track record with promotions. A recent partnership with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts gave consumers the chance to win a trip to New York and exclusive collectibles, which Owen says created excitement and engagement among fans and consumers.
“This summer we have another very exciting partnership coming up with a much anticipated blockbuster,” he says.
There were also in-store promotions to celebrate National Hot Dog Month last summer. Consumers could enjoy a free hotdog by downloading participating fuel group apps, making the experience fun and rewarding.
The company has also been successful with social media competitions across the likes of TikTok and Instagram, offering prizes such as an iPhone 15, Apple watch, Amazon vouchers and cinema tickets.
There have also been collaborations with key fuel groups offering meal deals with brands like Monster and Costa. Owen says they provide great value and convenience, ensuring consumers have access to delicious and affordable meal options while on the go.
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