One observation from recent visits to several supermarkets in London—Sainsburys, Tesco, and Waitrose among them—is the strong role licensing plays in bakery-related categories, namely cake and cupcake kits and celebration cakes.
Cake kits are pouch-packaged cake, cookie, or cupcake mixes with a value-added accessory, such as a cookie cutter or a set of cupcake cases, inside the pack. Nearly all are licensed. Examples include Hello Kitty, Mister Maker, One Direction, Shaun the Sheep, and Tom & Jerry from Green’s; Marvel, Star Wars, Frozen, and other Disney-owned properties from Fiddes Payne; and Minions and Peppa Pig from Symington’s.
Meanwhile, decorated, ready-to-eat celebration cakes spotted on-shelf featured character properties including Paw Patrol, Me to You, Peppa, Thomas & Friends, Batman, and several Disney and Marvel varieties, as well as food brands including Cadbury, Thornton’s, Haribo, and Jammie Dodgers. Licensees included Premier Foods and Finsbury Foods.
The emphasis on licensed cakes and cake mixes in supermarkets is not too surprising given the popularity of baking in British pop culture of late, from highly rated TV shows such as The Great British Bake-Off, of which more than 10 million viewers saw the finale episode this year, to retail bakeries such as Hummingbird, which attracts lines out to the sidewalk at many of its eight London locations. Both bakers and bakeries have launched licensing programs as well.
A few of the other categories where licensing has a significant presence in London supermarkets include:
- Frozen ice lollies and fruit lollies (frozen ice cream bars and fruit bars), with Peppa and Minions among the characters and Nestle, Oreo, and Del Monte some of the food brands noted.
- Sauces, with celebrities such as Mary Berry and Lloyd Grossman and restaurant chains such as Nando’s represented, among many more.
- Refrigerated prepared foods under the names of Linda McCartney, Ken Hom, and others.
There were many additional examples of character, celebrity, and branded licensed products sprinkled throughout the stores visited, from Thomas and Minions yogurt to Jamie Oliver spices.
Licensing is well developed in the food and beverage category in both the U.K. and the U.S., and items such as sauces and ice lollies/bars have a strong licensed presence in both markets. But there are some differences. In entrées, U.S. activity has been skewed toward restaurant brands entering the frozen meal aisle, while in Britain a shopper is more likely to see a celebrity-branded prepared meal in the refrigerator case. In the U.S., fruit snacks are a key product for children’s properties, while in the U.K. that category has almost no licensing.
The cake kits mentioned above are certainly another example. Many cake mixes in the U.S. have ties to food ingredient or flavor brands, but children’s properties are not much of a factor. On the other hand, cake kits are clearly on the radar of any licensor of children’s properties in the U.K.
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