Xylitol brand Total Sweet has announced that it will launch in 600 stores in Ireland and add Booths to its list of UK stockists, as it continues to improve availability of the natural sweetener.
Booths joins existing stockists Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Holland and Barrett in the UK, while Total Sweet’s Irish launch follows a period of 40% year-on-year sales growth during the past 12 months for the brand.
The remarkable performance is in stark contrast to the fortunes of the sluggish sugar market, where dwindling sales have been compounded by a six-year low in sugar prices and the recommendation from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) that Public Health England should lower its guideline daily intake of sugar from 10% of total energy consumption to no more than 5%.
Total Sweet claimed there was further growth potential within the UK’s sweetener market, and has a number of products in development to take advantage of demand.
Total Sweet managing director Edward Baylis said: “Things have aligned perfectly for us over the last six months. Sugar has continued to take a pounding in the press, whilst awareness of xylitol has reached a tipping point, helped massively by a recent programme on Channel 4, which highlighted the positives of the natural sweetener. Furthermore, stores like Holland and Barrett have launched a larger 1kg pack format which gives xylitol a much stronger shelf presence.
“When we first launched the brand, nearly a decade ago, maybe 0.5% of the population had heard of xylitol. It’s now up to around 7% or 8%, but that still leaves a very large market for us to go after, which is obviously hugely exciting for us and marketing activity over the next 12 months is focussed firmly on consumer education.”
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