Cottage cheese sales are on a roll

It’s the age of cottage cheese. At first glance, it may sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not. TikTok has sent cottage cheese sales to the moon.

The data keeps rising, but we do know cottage cheese overall has had hundreds of millions of views on the online platform thus far. For example, mustard cottage cheese alone has had millions of views.

The popularity of the video platform TikTok has definitely led to cottage cheese sales for the 52-week period ending Feb. 25, according to Circana, a Chicago-based market research firm. Cottage cheese dollar sales zoomed higher by 16% year over year (YoY) to $1.33 billion, while unit sales also achieved an impressive 11% YoY increase to 485 million.

Private-label cottage cheese sales led the way, more than doubling any competitor. Private-label cottage cheese dollar sales increased by 13% YoY to $538 million, as well as a 7% unit sales improvement to 197 million, according to Circana.

Beyond private label, several companies had tremendous YoY results. The biggest standout was No. 4 cottage cheese seller Good Culture, whose dollar sales rocketed higher by 87% to $104 million, pairing well with a 57% unit sales rise to 35 million.

No. 2 cottage cheese seller Daisy was not left out of the party, with dollar sales jumping 27% YoY to $251 million, while unit sales rose the same percentage to 86.5 million.

“Cottage cheese is seeing strong growth for both brands and private label as TikTok lifted the entire category,” John Crawford, vice president, Client Insights-Dairy, for Circana, told Dairy Foods last month, which he also cited during a March Dairy Foods webinar on March 14.

Beyond cottage cheese, other cultured dairy categories Circana tracks overall fell in line with traditional norms, but there are signs of tremendous strength in particular subcategories. Let’s start with sour cream, which had an overall strong year. Its dollar sales increased a healthy 6% YoY to $1.76 billion. Unit sales eked out a 0.2% gain to 681 million for the year ending Feb. 25.

The No. 1 player in this category, Daisy, had an excellent year. The Dallas-based company’s sour cream dollar sales rose by 9% YoY, as it approached the $1 billion milestone ($992 million). Daisy’s unit sales increased by 3% YoY to 349 million.

Two other standouts in sour cream were No. 7 seller Lala and El Mexicano. Dallas-based Lala enjoyed a 27% YoY dollar sales increase to nearly $12 million, along with a unit sales jump of 14% to 2.84 million. No. 8 seller, San Jose, Calif.-based El Mexicano, posted $11.6 million in dollar sales, good for a 22% YoY improvement, pairing well with 15% unit sales growth to 2.9 million, Circana data reports.

Regarding cream cheese, overall dollar sales improved by 4% YoY to $2.83 billion, while unit sales declined slightly by 0.4% YoY to 801 million. Under the cream cheese-soft subcategory, dollar sales increased by 2% YoY to $1.33 billion, but unit sales fell nearly 1% to 369 million. Philadelphia leads this category in terms of dollar sales, which eked out a 0.4% YoY gain to $806 million. However, the division of The Kraft Heinz Co. suffered a unit sales drop of 5% to 151 million, according to Circana.

A big standout in cream cheese-soft was No. 3 seller Tillamook, whose dollar sales jumped 17% YoY to $32 million. The Tillamook, Ore.-based dairy processor enjoyed an even better year in terms of unit sales, which sold 9 million units, a rise of 24% YoY.

In the cream cheese-brick subcategory, Philadelphia again led the way in terms of dollar sales, which increased by 6% YoY to $788 million, but unit sales dipped 4% YoY to 198 million. Among the top five sellers in this subcategory, Waitsfield, Vt.-based Cabot Creamery was a star, with dollar sales zooming 25% to $3.3 million, as well as an 18% YoY unit sales increase to 1.3 million, Circana reports.

Zeroing in on the cream cheese-whipped subcategory, dollar sales rocketed higher by 11% YoY to $345 million, to go along with an 8% unit sales rise to 91 million. Again, Philadelphia led this subcategory in terms of dollar sales, but this time, both its dollar sales and unit sales improved for the year ending Feb. 25. Philadelphia’s dollar sales rose 6% YoY to $190 million, while unit sales lifted a tad by 0.3% to 39 million.

Cream cheese-whipped’s star performer was No. 4 seller Einstein, which enjoyed triple-digit dollar sales and unit sales growth. The City of Industry, Calif.-based company’s dollar sales soared 136% YoY to $2.4 million, pairing with a similar 131% YoY unit sales gain to 693,285.

Lastly, in the cream cheese-all other forms subcategory, albeit from the smaller base, dollar sales rose 16% to $5 million, and saw an 18% YoY unit sales jump to 1.1 million. Private label topped this subcategory in terms of sales, which improved by 6% to $2.4 million, while unit sales increased by 5% to 623,053.

A standout in this subcategory was No. 3 brand Nurishh, which enjoyed huge triple-digit YoY gains. The division of Chicago-based Bel Brands USA saw its dollar sales skyrocket 273% YoY to $756,443, while unit sales climbed 274% YoY to 197,856, the market research firm reports. DF