How Will the New HFSS Regulations Affect Point of Sale Displays in Stores?
What does HFSS mean?
High Fat, Sugar, and Salt. More specifically, this refers to foods which are high in fat, sugar, and salt, as defined by the Department of Health profiling model.
What are HFSS regulations?
The HFSS regulations have been in the making for a few years and were originally due to roll out in April 2022 but were pushed back to October, due to the scale of the undertaking. This has now been further postponed in the UK to 2025 due to the impact on people’s budgets around the cost of living.
There has been evidence supported by academic research, that food purchases, especially those made by children, are significantly influenced by price promotions in the food retail industry.
To combat obesity and other diet-related health problems, the UK government has responded by enacting new regulations that limit the promotion of HFSS products.
What will be restricted as part of the HFSS legislation?
- Volume price promotions. This includes multi-buy promotions and ‘buy one get one free’ offers. Both point to monetary incentives for purchasing unhealthy goods more frequently.
- Display locations. Key locations are defined as aisle ends, store entrances and checkouts. This also applies to ‘the equivalent key locations online’.
Retailers will no longer be permitted to display food and drink classed as ‘less healthy’ within 2m of the checkouts in stores. They're also restricted within 15m of the midpoint of the store entrances. Aisle end Point of Sale displays, such as dump bins and FSDU’s must also not promote ‘less-healthy’ items. Retailers will be able to promote the classified products using mid-aisle displays only, and not within 50cm of the aisle end.
What challenges will our material suppliers experience and what solutions do they have to continue to support in-store promotions?
Material suppliers will have to use a change of tactics when creating promotional displays for the restricted items. This could mean creating more on-shelf POS by utilising standard designs such as wobblers, shelf strips and header boards. Furthermore, material suppliers are enhancing their profile of POS with innovative designs such as bespoke shelf trays and gravity-fed units.
How can DCS help with supplying POS?
We can provide fast and flexible solutions to suit each customer’s individual needs. Enquiry to in-store can take as little as two weeks.
Working alongside our trusted and reliable material suppliers and our experienced in-house Design Team, DCS can support with executing impactful POS to continue to feature these brands in stores and highlight promotions.
Please email copack@dcsgroup.com for further information.