Instant coffee still surviving
Despite Australia’s growing café culture, not all instant coffee brands are experiencing drops in sales says a new report from Roy Morgan Research.
Examining instant coffee sales between April 2011 and March 2016, the proportion of Australian grocery buyers 14+ who brought instant coffee (not decaff) in an average four-week period slipped from 59. 1 per cent to 49.4 per cent.
Looking at these figures closely however, and Roy Morgan found the fall was largely attributed to consumers turning away from Nescafe instant coffee.
“As we have seen, Australian grocery buyers seem to be turning away from instant coffee, with purchase incidence dropping by 16 per cent over just five years,” said Roy Morgan Research Industry Communications Director, Norman Morris.
“However, on closer inspection, we find that this decline is not so much category-wide, as the result of Nescafé’s two leading varieties, Blend 43 and Gold Blend, losing popularity. Most of the smaller players have actually experienced moderate growth since April 2011.”
Although Nescafe sales have fallen, it still remains as Australia’s favourite coffee brand with 49.7 per cent of instant coffee buyers purchasing the brand at least once a month.
Three Nescafe brands, Blend 43, Gold Blend and Espresso, are in the top ten of Australia’s bets selling instant coffee brands.
Australia’s 10 best-selling instant coffees
Source: Roy Morgan Single Source (Australia), April 2011-March 2012 (n=9,493); April 2015– March 2016 (n=3,408). NB:direction of arrows indicates whether proportion of grocery buyers has increased or decreased since April 2011-March 2012 period.
Moccona does well
Moccona is Australia’s second favourite brand with 33.6 per cent of instant coffee buyers purchasing it at least once a month. Its coffee has risen in popularity since the first 12 months to April 2012.
“Despite its downturn, Nescafe retains a very comfortable category lead – although with Moccona’s consistent growth, the coffee giant needs to be vigilant, ensuring that it is targeting the most appropriate audience,” said Roy Morgan’s Norman Morris.
“For example, our data shows that Nescafé buyers are most likely to be aged 50 or older and belong to lower-income brackets. What’s more, the brand’s popularity is far from consistent across all states.”
