‘Pumpkin spice everywhere,’ NIQ’s Sherry Frey unpacks LTO trends for fall, winter
“Pumpkin has been an area that has continued to grow, and I think it is that sign of fall for many consumers ... and we do see pumpkin spice everywhere,” Frey said. “It's across the store ... it's in bakery, it's in frozen, [and] it's in produce even.”
While noting that nothing “is going to compete at the level of pumpkin spice,” other flavors like apple, caramel, and cinnamon are rising and finding their ways into frozen and baked goods, Frey said.
“Ice cream is one of those areas where we continue to see those fun and emerging flavors, and even more of an emphasis on fruit-related flavors in that space, that breadth across the flavor profile in novelties as well as ice cream.”
Winter seasonal flavors like eggnog, peppermint, and others have already arrived on shelves, Frey said. While consumers are looking to beat the cold of the winter, they are still tapping into frozen-food categories with seasonal LTO, which include ice cream, she noted.
“We're already seeing eggnog,” Frey said. “We continue to see growth in it across categories, across the store, and probably the space right now where we've been watching it [is] bakery, so a lot of growth in eggnog and bakery. And then peppermint, that one ... we've seen again [grow] in the frozen category ... as well as in bakery.”
