TRKR:NIQ Brand Growth Snapshot. Dairy, November ‘25
The Dairy category in the UK is valued at £16B and plays a significant role in most people’s daily shopping and living habits.
Big brands and supermarket own label products dominate the category, but there are also many smaller brands and innovations challenging them.
While it can be tempting (and normal) to measure a brand’s performance by focusing on its TOTAL volume, revenue or shopper numbers, the key to unlocking brand growth is getting more shoppers to buy them, as highlighted by Byron Sharp in ‘How Brands Grow’.
59% of the top 3,000 grocery brands have grown through increased penetration
Each month our TRKR:NIQ Brand Growth Snapshot series will focus on identifying the brands that are leading the way in their respective categories. We’ll also look at what impact this has had upon their category. Have they grown by stealing spend from rival brands (creating churn) or have they added incremental growth?
With our help, FMCG brand owners will be able to look both inside and outside their categories to identify examples of growth brands they can take learnings from.
Our data is sourced from NIQ’s 30,000 GB household panel. NielsenIQ (NIQ) is the global leading consumer intelligence company, providing comprehensive market research and consumer insights. They offer detailed data on consumer behaviour, market trends, and industry performance, helping businesses make informed decisions.
TRKR work closely with the NIQ UK Small & Medium Business Team, who are passionate about providing the best data, insights and knowledge to help brands compete with the biggest players across the FMCG landscape!
As mentioned above, the Dairy category in the UK is valued at £16B and plays a significant role in consumers’ daily shopping habits.
It spans everyday essentials such as milk, cheese, butter, spreads, creams, yogurts, and fresh desserts, with a strong competition across both private-label and branded SKUs.
The key objective for Retail Buyers is finding new options that grow the category, rather than stealing from existing brands
In the 52 weeks to October 2025, Tesco led the UK Dairy category in terms of total shopper penetration, with 67.5% of all GB shoppers buying from them at least once in the year. Among the non-private label brands, Cathedral City was the most popular, reaching 40.8% shoppers buying at least once.
Discounters have also seen a strong demand, with Aldi Cowbelle and Lidl Milbano ranking in the top 5, with 44.6% and 42.7% of shoppers buying at least once, respectively.
Shopper Growth
Müller stands out as the leading brand in GB brands based on shopper growth. In the 52 weeks to October 2025, the brand attracted 2.3 million new shoppers with 18.4% of households buying from them at least once over the year, generating an additional spend growth of +£39m.
Graham’s Family Dairy attracted an additional +1.3m new shoppers over the past year. Just over 1 in 5 GB shoppers now buy a Graham’s product (22%).
Private Label - significant growth…
Tesco Finest attracted +1.1m new shoppers with 26.9% of GB shoppers buying them at least once over the past year.
Additionally, Asda’s top tier ‘Exceptional’ range gained +1 million new shoppers. 8.7% of all GB shoppers have bought Asda Exceptional dairy products at least once over the past year.
By looking at the most successful brands in terms of penetration in the category and understanding how they achieved this, the other brands can apply these learnings to their own brands.
While Müller was the most successful brand at attracting new shoppers, 66% of this growth came from shoppers switching to Müller from rival brands, meaning the brand didn’t entirely contribute to the overall growth of the category.
Graham’s, on the other hand, did contribute to the category growth, with 57% of their +1.3 million new shoppers adding Graham’s to their existing brand repertoire.
Biotiful also performed strongly, attracting over 900,000 new shoppers; however, 55% of the growth was not incremental to the category, meaning the brand gained share at the expense of others in the category.
In summary….
For individual brands, growth comes from gaining new shoppers.
However, for the Category and for Retail Buyers, success is brands achieving this by growing the category at the same time. By understanding those shopper dynamics, brand owners can focus on the best examples of incremental brand growth, which they may then try to replicate. Those brands will be more likely to retain and grow shelf presence and distribution.
What next?
We (you) can use NIQ’s Panel data to identify what is driving the growth (or decline) of your own brand and products, and of rival brands in your category.
In addition to switching and incremental sales, other useful measures within Panel include:
Penetration - the % of GB households who are buying a brand over a given time period
Shopper conversion - for example, the % of Tesco Dairy shoppers who are buying Graham’s
Spend per household - the average spend on a category/sector/brand (or in any retailer) over a given time period
TRKR have years of experience in combining Panel data with EPOS data and bespoke shopper insight, to create compelling Retail Buyer pitches for our clients. Not just in Dairy, but across most FMCG categories.
We offer suppliers a free 60-minute category management training session, individually or as a team, where our Insight Director Mark Thomson shares his experience to help you optimize your retailer packs by getting the most from your EPOS and Panel data and leveraging bespoke insights.
Book your session now!