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Perfect Bake - Richmond
‘Oven-ready’ has long been a hot trend in fresh meat and fish - and now Richmond has brought bangers to the party. Richmond’s Perfect Bake comprises eight pork sausages and a sauce glaze in an oven-ready griddle tray. According to Richmond brand manager Joe Hunter, the tray represents “brand new technology” and cooks the sausages perfectly without needing to turn them. Available in chillers nationwide since March, the range includes BBQ, Caramelised Onion and Plain.
Just over half of Aldi and Lidl’s incremental sales came from fresh food this year: meat, fish and poultry now account for 11.9% of their sales, making it the most significant sector for the discounters after fruit & veg.
The impact of this is plain to see: only veg has been hit harder in the price war than meat and poultry. Combined loss is £291.2m; add cooked meat and sales are down £337.4m, making fish’s paltry £12.1m (0.7%) gain seem cause for wild celebration.
The rise of the discounters is having a profound effect on supermarket sales, with the mults looking to keep pace with fierce deals. Poultry has been hit particularly hard, with chicken contributing £94.4m to the decline.
“Primary chicken has become a key battleground,” says Guy Wootton, Moy Park director of category & insight, adding deal mechanics are changing. “Some retailers have reviewed their promotional strategies and moved away from multibuy deals towards more of a focus on every day low price, and this has also impacted volumes.”
Similarly, blame for fresh meat’s £188.3m loss can be laid at the feet of the discounters, with Matt Southam of AHDB Beef & Lamb pointing to mince as a particularly strong area for Aldi and Lidl. “Both lamb and beef mince are performing very well,” he says. “People feel confident about buying things like mince from the discounters.”
That’s not to say all the multiples’ efforts to shore up volumes have been in vain. Southam says Tesco has seen a “good uplift” on steak sales after moving sirloin, rump and ribeye to a £3 price point, and Asda’s two-for-£7 and three-for £10 deals have also proved popular. While still in decline, cooked meats have performed better than the wider fresh meat market, dipping 2.1% to £2,360.6m on volumes that fell 0.7%.
Fish was the only fresh protein to buck the deflationary trend, reflecting a continued push towards added value. According to Amanda Webb, sales and marketing director at The Saucy Fish Co, most of the category’s gain has come at the expense of meat and poultry sales - with health-conscious shoppers switching proteins.
Webb admits, however, that fish has been hit by a move towards every day low prices. And with the discounters continuing to ramp up their offer, that pressure will only rise.
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