UK consumers going organic

The trade magazine Checkout has found that although the top UK brand is still Coca-Cola, the fastest growing brands are the Innocent brand and Danone Bio Activia. The smoothie company Innocent entered this year's chart at number 63, and has become the fastest growing brand in the UK, with sales up 140%. Danone Bio Activia comes in second, with growth of 77% putting it at number 60 in the sales chart.

Yeo Valley Organic's sales figures also stand out: the company's results were up 25% on last year's results, as it entered the chart at number 88, and making it the only fully organic brand in the top 100. Just outside this cut-off point now sits Kettle Chips, a fast-growing company which makes a point of choosing the most authentic natural ingredients.

Data was collected by checkouts in major supermarkets, including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and M&S.

Fiona Briggs, Editor of Checkout magazine said: 'The sales patterns we have identified clearly show that consumers have adopted real lifestyle changes. Brands which have performed really well have largely done so on the back of either development into healthy, wholesome lines or the removal and reduction of nasties such as saturated fats, salt and additives.

'In virtually every key produce category form bread to biscuits, soft drinks to savoury snacks, cereals to chilled yoghurts and desserts, the brands that are recording the fastest sales growth are healthier ones.'