Health-conscious Australians ditching sugary spreads for healthier options may be behind the decision to put an iconic jam brand up for sale. 

Coca-Cola Amatil's SPC unit has announced it is looking for buyers for its IXL Jam brand and Taylors marinades.

The company was founded by Tasmanian Henry Jones in Hobart in 1981 (a play on 'I excel'), when jam was a breakfast staple, before it moved to Victoria and took over the iconic Jam Factory in Prahran.

SPC managing director Reg Weine told the Australian Financial Review that while three of their four divisions were growing — tomatoes, packaged fruit, baked beans and spaghetti — jam was in decline.

"IXL and Taylors are great brands, but the spreads and sauces/marinades categories are a relatively small part of the overall portfolio and we've concluded that we are best to focus on the areas where we have a distinct competitive advantage," Mr Weine said.

"We have a great sense of responsibility in ensuring these heritage brands find a good home and will be sad to see them go."

KPMG Corporate Finance is examining the sale of the two brands.

In their 2017 Spreads in Australia report, strategic market researchers Euromonitor found the retail value of nut and seed spreads, like almond, tahini and super spreads, grew fastest in 2017, at three per cent.

Euromonitor attributed this to customers using nut and seed spreads as a protein boost or a way to satisfy hunger cravings, particularly in smoothies.  

Meanwhile, it predicted jams and preserves will decline at a 5 per cent compound annual growth rate in 2018, as more people people turn to acai bowls, avocado toast and kale smoothies.

"You've got yoghurt in a pouch or breakfast biscuits, things like oats or making smoothies at home," Euromonitor's Rehan Panditaratne told 7 News.

Euromonitor did find jams and marmalades were still popular with one demographic: older Australians.

Country Women's Association NSW member Annie Kiefer said they still had a love for scones with jam and cream, especially if it was homemade.

"We bake our scones fresh and serve them with jam and cream and we get thousands of bottles of jam sent down and it goes," she told 7 News.

In 2005, Coca-Cola Amatil acquired SPC. Before SPC, Henry Jones IXL and Taylors was owned by JM Smucker in 2004.  Fifteen years earlier the business was owned by John Elliot's Elders IXL.

SPC is based in Shepparton and IXL and Taylors are processed in Kyabram.

IXL is the second biggest jam brand in Australia after Cottees.