Case Study: United Biscuits
United Biscuits' (UB) focus on health and nutrition is integral
to providing quality snacks that consumers can enjoy as part
of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle. With consumers
increasingly concerned about their intake of saturated fat, and
the Food Standards Agency's call for manufacturers to reduce
levels in their products, saturated fat reduction became a key
focus for UB in 2005.
UB began reducing the saturated fat in its snacks portfolio in
2005, and then expanded the programme to include biscuits.
UB was keen to lead the way in this area by making changes
to already popular brands that consumers love, without
compromising on taste.
UB's biggest ever reformulation project took place over
three years; involved a £6 million investment in research and
development; and resulted in three of McVitie's core variants
(Digestives, Rich Tea and Hobnobs, which are collectively
worth £55m to UB) being relaunched in January 2009, with
50% less saturated fat. After a further £5million investment,
by November 2009, UB had succeeded in reducing the
saturated fat in these products by a further 50%, resulting in
an impressive 75% reduction in less than a year.
Consumers were impressed, with 800,000 new households
buying the reformulated biscuits. One lady told UB's customer
care line: “Thanks for reducing the saturated fat. My Doctor has
now taken these biscuits off my 'do not eat' list”.
Silver winner 2010 Community Partnership Awards: Health and Wellbeing
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More Information
FDF has published a booklet Community Partnership Awards 2010 (pdf, 2Mb) featuring a range of company case studies from Community Partnership Award
winners.