The UK Gluten Free Market Grew at 62% in 2009 - See What People in the 'Mother Land' Are Eating

The following analysis uses Google data sets.GF specific
Previous Gluten Free Pages research showed thatfoods..........54,280....................100,200...................85%
the UK started with a healthy 'search per celiacOne of the more interesting trends is the growth
per month' value of 2.2 in 2004. However, whilein the GF specific food group. In that group the
Australia was in front of the UK and remains so,leading phrases are still GF bread and flour,
by 2008 both the USA and Canada hadhowever a significant number of people are
overtaken this GFP market measure value. Thestarting to search for cakes, 'dairy free gluten'
UK gluten free online demand (searches) trendand chocolate.
has been very flat over the last five years, untilLONG TERM GROWTH
last year.Google permits trend analysis on individual terms,
When the top 50 monthly gluten associatedbut plotting the top 50 that comprise the main
searches are segmented into seven subcategoriesanalysis would provide little useful insight. The
(see table below), it can be seen that each of thephrase 'gluten free' represents 41% of ALL
categories received a similar increase. While thesesearches within the generic group so its two year
increases are very large, it was found that alltrend is plotted below as a proxy.
other leading gluten free online demand countriesIt is noted that not all subregions of the UK have
experienced an even stronger growth increase.trend data available, however England trend data
The first thing to notice about the gluten freeshows almost an exact match to UK data.
search terms is that the top 50 Google GlutenPrevious GFP trend line research and analysis for
associated search terms increased over the lastthe UK shows that there is no particular seasonal
year from 809K to 1.3M (+62%). The maintrend. This is unusual in that most other leading
group's (gluten free) key phrases absolute volumegluten free search countries show strong seasonal
changes were to gluten (201K -> 301K) andtrends over the last five years. The linear
gluten free ( 135K -> 246K searches).forecast over the past year extrapolates to a
TOP 50 proportionsgrowth of 23% for this one term (compared with
The composition of the proportions of each group10% for 2008).
are significantly different from the standardThe following table shows the Dec 2009 leading
proportions experienced by other leading onlinegluten free search citites in the UK, and their
demand countries. For example, the USA NOVrelative strength.
2009 gluten free group proportion data showsUK City.........................GF Search Importance
what is considered to be the standard proportionsSt Albans......................1.0
representative of leading 'celiac searches perThames Ditton...............0.67
month' countries (eg: USA, Canada, Australia).Milton Keynes................0.605
The proportion of the top 50's main generic glutenReading........................0.595
free group remained stable at 46% of the top 50Sheffield.......................0.575
searches and the second largest group 'celiacs'Oxford..........................0.57
decreased from 24% to 19%. The table belowWatford........................0.57
shows that the overall increase in the top 50Hull..............................0.545
Google terms was produced by an increase in allPoplar...........................0.54
groups search volumes.Edinburgh......................0.535
GF GROUP...................Search VOL 08.........VolumesCONCLUSION
2009.........% IncreasePrevious analysis on UK searches up to 2008
GF Generic..................375,700...................602,200..................60%showed that while it had a relatively high 'celiac
Gluten diet..................23,480.....................53,900.................130%search per month' value of 2.2 it had relatively flat
GF Recipe....................58,480....................124,000................112%growth. The analysis for 2009 shows that there
Coeliac.......................193,180...................251,500.................30%has been significant growth in searches in the
Wheat free..................95,700....................153,900..................61%overall gluten category (top 50 terms).
GF Locations................8,280......................19,200..................132%