We’re halfway through the year, so Progressive Housewares caught up with Christophe Leblan, managing director at Groupe Seb UK, to find out about the year so far and plans for the second half.
How has 2024 been so far for your company and the industry as a whole?
Christophe: “While some of the categories we operate in have shown signs of decline, Groupe Seb UK is gaining share in our core categories. This is driven by strong gains in air fryers since the launch of our Dual Easy Fry & Grill at the end of last year, which also saw us reach the top rankings in all our major retailers.”
What has been your highlight of 2024 so far?
Christophe: “We finally brought our European best seller Tefal X-Force (handstick vacuum cleaners) to the UK in April. Since launch we have had some great consumer feedback – an important milestone for Groupe Seb UK as we intend to innovate in more categories to become a significant player in SDA.
“We also extended our 20+ year partnership with Jamie Oliver into air fryers, sponsoring his Jamie’s Air Fryer Meals series. We really value our relationship with Jamie and taking it to the next level by showing consumers how they can get creative with air fryers is key in our strategy to highlight the product’s versatility and to reignite buzz in the category, while bringing traffic and sales to our retail partners.”
What have the biggest challenges and opportunities been so far?
Christophe: “Overall, the signs indicate that the SDA categories we play in will be declining year-on-year. This is largely being driven by air fryers and while sales remain steady, we aren’t seeing anything near the demand that we did a couple of years ago. We believe the biggest opportunity is to continue to innovate and demonstrate the versatility of the air fryer, attracting new consumers by highlighting the various usage occasions and helping existing users to trade up to larger formats with our latest Dual Easy Fry products.”
What are your hopes and expectations for the remainder of 2024?
Christophe: “We have lots of exciting NPD to come in cooking in the second half of the year, which we hope will continue to fuel our growth and market share development in this category (muti usage/versatility/time saving solutions). We also want to build on the success we have had in cookware, where we will continue to leverage our claim as the UK’s longest-lasting non-stick.
“A big focus for us will also be continuing to grow our online shop, where we have seen significant growth for the past few years.”
