Cash-strapped Brits ditch Heinz Beanz for cheaper own brands

Shoppers are canning Heinz’s famous baked beans in favour of own-brand versions as inflation continues to bite Britons, stated a recent report.

Branded baked beans have registered the highest price rises. With the average cost per pack up 37.8 per cent, they are now four times as expensive as own label alternatives. At the same time, volumes are down 24.3 per cent, Daily Mail reported. Now shoppers are turning to supermarkets own-brand baked beans as alternatives.

Price rises now mean that a tin of Heinz Beanz costs £1.40 while a can of Sainsbury’s own-brand baked beans costs 44p. Heinz has blamed production costs for the increase, including soaring energy bills, the price of transporting goods and rising wages for workers.

The latest hike in Heinz’s prices came in January this year when the price of a 415g tin of Heinz Beanz was increased by 20 per cent. Retail experts warned at the time that if the “gap gets too big, they’ll lose sales”.

According to an analysis by Kantar, shoppers are increasingly turning to cheaper options in a bid to save money amid rising home and energy bills, with Heinz sales dropping by 18 per cent.

The squeeze on household budgets had ‘forced consumers to monitor their spending and opt for cheaper options’, reports quoted Kantar category analyst Cameron Bailey as saying.

Significant price hikes in ambient brands had further driven downtrading, Bailey added.

A 415g tin of Heinz Beanz will set back shoppers £1.40. In contrast a 420g can of Lidl’s own-brand baked beans costs 45p – a whopping 95p less while Tesco’s own-brand baked beans, which are also 420g, costs 50p, stated the report.

The average price per pack in branded canned and ambient is up by 21.6 per cent to £1.36, while own label is 8.4 per cent pricier at an average of just 64p per unit.

Branded price rises have proved controversial – most notably a pricing spat between Heinz and Tesco last summer saw the brand’s baked beans and other SKUs temporarily pulled from shelves.