Cooking sauces slump as more cook from scratch

Inspired by celeb chefs, more and more of us are cooking from scratch. And it’s hitting cooking sauces hard. Over the past year, the market has contracted by 2.1% in value terms and 6.5% in volume [Nielsen 52 w/e 12 October].

The biggest brands have borne the brunt. Category leader Dolmio has sacrificed value in order to maintain volume - it’s down 3.4% by value on volumes up 3.7%. Meanwhile Loyd Grossman and Homepride, in second and third place, have seen both value and volume fall.

It’s not that the cooking sauce is dead. It’s just evolving. As time-pressed as ever, consumers want more exotic, adventurous flavours, and hard as suppliers try, sometimes existing brands don’t have the necessary credentials. Instead, cooking pastes, pestos and ethnic sauces that can offer both foodie credentials and convenience are bucking the overall decline. As a result the biggest gains in value terms have been made by pesto sauce brand Sacla’, up £2.3m to £23.4m.

“A lot of customers just don’t see cooking sauces as value for money anymore, not when they can create simple sauces, with one or two cheap products such as pesto and olive oil, from scratch,” says Walter Zanré, UK MD of Filippo Berio, which has enjoyed 12.8% growth on volumes up 13% for its pesto range. “The growth of filled pasta, which doesn’t require a sauce, has also hurt the market.”

More exotic flavours are also hot. “Indian curry sauces are doing exceptionally well for us, with sales up 20% year on year,” says Waitrose buyer Victoria Mason. “We’ll be launching exclusive lines such as Middle Eastern belazu sauces and Vietnamese kho curry sauce to tap this trend. With cooking pastes also on the rise, we’ve seen customers become more adventurous, choosing pastes including harissa and chipotle.”

The performances of mainstream ethnic brands such as Sharwood’s, Uncle Ben’s and Blue Dragon reflect this trend (see table). Innovation is key, says Andrew Mayhew, MD of AB World Foods, which owns Blue Dragon. “The category must provide more exciting solutions to meet consumers’ need for different flavours and varieties as it has remained too similar for too many years,” he explains.

Pat Thomas, head of insight at Premier Foods, agrees. “Consumers are experimenting with different cuisines,” he says. “‘Rest of world sauces’ are up 28%, Tex Mex is up 5% and Thai is up 4%. Sharwood’s has seen growth in comparison to, say, Homepride due to its wider range of sauces, noodles and accompaniments, which gives the chance to recreate oriental restaurant favourites.”

There’s at least one consolation for brands suffering due to the home cooking trend kicked off by celeb chefs: Jamie Oliver’s range has fallen 44.7% in value in the past year.

Read The Grocer’s full Top Products Survey.