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With the legacy brands that once dominated the biscuits category now finding themselves in the squeezed middle, Steve Monk, founder of Good Guys Bakehouse, looks at what this means for the category and discusses how health, transparency and authenticity are creating new opportunities for growth.

The biscuits category, like most food and drinks categories, has been driven by two fundamental consumer trends over the last decade.

Firstly, we’ve seen polarisation of the market as consumers seek brands dedicated to either heath or indulgence. At one end, health-conscious consumers are demanding better-for-you options with natural ingredients and functional benefits. At the other end, indulgence remains strong, with consumers craving rich, decadent treats.

Alongside this has been the rise of premiumisation – where consumers are willing to pay more for brands with higher quality ingredients and more involving tastes and textures.

The end of the ‘masterbrand’ era?

Caught in the 'squeezed middle' are traditional, legacy biscuit brands – monolithic masterbrands that once dominated supermarket shelves. As consumer preferences become more diverse, these middle-ground brands have found themselves squeezed between health-driven innovation and indulgent, premium treats.

Their response to fundamental consumer trends has been weak. Rather than breaking free with a portfolio of distinctive new brands, they remain paralysed by a reliance on middle-ground positioning. Instead of investing in disruptive new product formats, they prioritise maximising their existing production capabilities. As a result, they have leaned on small-scale tactical innovation and, above all, price – again and again – to squeeze more growth from a tired core.

The pandemic provided a brief respite for the legacy brands as shoppers turned to family favourites in times of scarcity, seeking out ‘most loved and trusted brands.’ But this respite was short lived.

Today, the outstanding winners in biscuits are brands that fulfil distinct healthier or indulgence roles, as evidenced by the rapid emergence of Skinny to become a £23 million brand in grocery, and Fox’s leaning in to indulgence to grow sales by far more than any other biscuit brand over the past few years to achieve £326 million in sales value.

Authenticity matters: Consumers trust dedicated healthier brands

When shoppers look for healthier snacks, they don’t just want a tweaked version of an existing product - they want something that feels genuinely designed to be healthier.

Newer challenger brands root their identity in being healthier. Start-ups and niche brands like Skinny, Kallo and Good Guys Bakehouse have a clear mission: to create snacks that are both tasty and healthy. Whilst each has a distinct brand image and approach to product, their brand positionings are tight, focused and consistently communicated with ruthless singlemindedness.

Legacy brands face scepticism. The market leading brands that have grown in the middle of the market have been built over decades. Every penny spent on marketing and advertising has been a penny spent to lock them into their existing positionings. The bigger and more famous the brand, the less able it is to stretch to become attractive to healthier consumers.

For today’s health-conscious shopper, a biscuit brand that has always focused on wellness feels more trustworthy and compelling than one that is merely adapting to market trends and feels questionable and compromised.

Legacy brands are often restricted by their existing formulas and production processes. They can’t afford to stray too far from their original products, most of which were developed decades ago, which can make their ‘healthier’ options feel like half-measures.

When these brands release ‘healthier’ versions of their classics, consumers not surprisingly see them as compromised versions of the original with disappointing taste and texture. They may suspect that the changes to remove the ‘bad stuff’ are superficial – reducing sugar but adding artificial sweeteners, or reducing salt but adding potassium chloride with additional ultra processed flavourings to mask its aftertaste. We’ve even seen a return of MSG into the mainstream.

Instead of choosing a ‘compromised classic’, shoppers are opting for products that were built with health in mind from day one.

Ingredient transparency and clean labels are winning with consumers

One of the biggest advantages new health-focused brands have is their ability to develop products to be less processed from the outset, often with a commitment to clean-label biscuits made with simple, recognisable ingredients.

Shoppers now read labels more carefully. They are increasingly aware of what’s in their food. They check for ultra-processed, weird ‘science-y’ ingredients.

Dedicated health brands highlight real ingredients with many using whole grains, nuts, seeds and natural sweeteners such as honey or dates.

When given the choice between a biscuit with ‘five simple ingredients’ versus one with a long laundry list of modified starches and processed flavourings, today’s healthier shoppers are picking the cleaner option – evidenced by the success of Nakd, Bear and Kind.

New healthier brands offer more than just ‘less bad’

Today’s health-conscious consumers aren’t just looking for less of the bad stuff, they want more of the good stuff, seeking naturally healthier ingredients, often with clear functional benefits.

We’ve seen growth in protein packed biscuits where brands like Trek and Kind are leading the charge with high-protein biscuit bars that cater to fitness enthusiasts, whilst gut-friendly biscuit bars are emerging – prebiotic and probiotic biscuits supporting digestive health with fibre-rich ingredients led by brands such as The Gut Stuff.

For legacy brands to stay relevant and appeal to new generations of consumers, they’ll need to do more than just tweak existing recipes. They’ll have to fully commit to innovation, rethinking ingredients, functionality and transparency. Otherwise, they risk being left behind.