A diet line, a beer, a laundry detergent and a shaving razor topped the list of best-selling new products of 2005, Information Resources Inc., which tracks data for consumer products makers and retailers, said Wednesday.
In the food and beverage category, Slim-Fast’s Optima diet line topped the 2005 list with $166 million in sales. Slim-Fast is made by Unilever Plc. Budweiser Select beer, from Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., was the No. 2 new product in the category, with $123 million in sales.
In the nonfood market, the largest new product sales were recorded by Tide with a touch of Downy laundry detergent, which blends two well-known laundry brands from Procter & Gamble Co. , and had sales of $266 million in its first year. The second-largest seller in the category was Gillette M3Power razors, with $100 million in sales. Gillette was acquired by P&G last fall.
According to IRI’s chief executive officer, Scott Klein, only 20 percent of products introduced in the consumer packaged goods category reach revenue of $7.5 million or more. Less than 1 percent of new products in the category, which includes everything from soft drinks to trash bags, reach annual sales of at least $100 million.
The IRI rankings include products launched between February 2004 and January 2005, so that they have a full 52 weeks of sales data by December 2005. IRI’s figures account for sales in the first year at food stores, drug stores and mass merchandise stores, excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s top retailer.
