Will using less sugar sweeten yogurt sales?
iness.”
U.S. consumers essentially didn’t eat Greek yogurt General Mills is betting before Chobani burst onto that less sugar will help spark the scene in 2007, rocketing growth in the company’s to $1 billion in sales in its first slumping yogurt unit. five years. Much of that suc
Called “YQ by Yoplait,” cess came at the expense of the new variety is made General Mills. w ith so-called ultra-filFor years, Yoplait was the tered milk and is less sweet top-selling brand in the U.S., than many popular prod- and as recently as 2012, it ucts in the category. That accounted for about 24 perincludes the company’s own cent of the U.S. market. In traditional Yoplait brand, 2016 Chobani took over the which has seen its sales and top spot in the U.S., and market share plummet in Yoplait’s market share has recent years as U.S. consum- dropped to about 14 percent, ers embraced Greek-style according to Euromonitor. yogurt. Dannon is the top seller of
But as Greek sales slow, yogurt in the U.S.. with 37 the search is on for the next percent of the market when trend that will drive growth accounting for all the comin the yogurt case. A year pany’s brands, including ago, General Mills released Oikos and Activia.
Oui, a yogurt with French The hemorrhaging sales heritage, and the product is prompted General Mills to on track to reach $100 mil- review its yogurt business lion in annual sales, making about two years ago. And it one top-performing new while Oui — sold in small product launches in the past glass jars — has helped, the few years, according to the company is facing an uphill company. battle as the overall yogurt
Even so, that hasn’t been market wanes. U.S. yogurt enough to turn the tide for sales have dropped in each General Mills’ yogurt unit, of the past two years, and which saw U.S. sales slide 8 Euromonitor estimates they percent in the most recent will decline 2.6 percent this quarter. While that was the year. third consecutive quarter Yogurt with less sugar is of improving performance nothing new. Light varietfor the unit, the Minneapo- ies have been around for lis-based food giant is hopdecades, but those products ing YQ can help stabilize and are typically sweetened artiturn the division around. ficially. YQ uses cane sugar,
“There are a lot of peo- and ultra-filtered milk has ple who are dissatisfied with less lactose. The plain varithe taste of Greek yogurt,” ety has 1 gram of sugar per said Doug Martin, who leads serving, with 9 grams in the yogurt innovation at the com- flavored versions. Yoplait’s pany. “Greek is not the end- original fruit yogurts can conpoint for healthiness or tast- tain about twice that amount.