There's been good growth in the cooking sauces category with Dolmio and Uncle Ben's doing particularly well for us. We dropped Chicken and Beef Tonight and Sharwood's sauces, though, because they weren't performing.
Our customers responded particularly well to the Dolmio relaunch and its new packaging and we've increased shelf space for the key SKUs. We stock mainly Masterfoods brands and they fit our demographic well because they're not marketed as premium but are not down-market either; they appeal to people who want to make a good quality Italian meal.
We've run both bogof and 'two-for' deals on Dolmio and Uncle Ben's that have done well and we find that shoppers get through products more quickly when they buy 'two for' a certain price. We've got a good value own-label range which is popular too.
We only stock jars at the moment but are keen to see how pouches perform and may include them after a range review next March. Apart from that, there hasn't been any NPD with a real wow factor lately - it's just been more about tweaking products.
Italian is the biggest sector, followed by Indian and Chinese; you can pretty well replicate a good Italian offering but I think it's harder with Indian, and particularly Chinese. The Thai sauces out there aren't that impressive either. Consumers' repertoires expand all the time but I'm not sure we'll see any new cuisines introduced. Instead there is a focus on healthy food and getting nasties out of products. I'd also like to see quality improve in some brands.
Our customers responded particularly well to the Dolmio relaunch and its new packaging and we've increased shelf space for the key SKUs. We stock mainly Masterfoods brands and they fit our demographic well because they're not marketed as premium but are not down-market either; they appeal to people who want to make a good quality Italian meal.
We've run both bogof and 'two-for' deals on Dolmio and Uncle Ben's that have done well and we find that shoppers get through products more quickly when they buy 'two for' a certain price. We've got a good value own-label range which is popular too.
We only stock jars at the moment but are keen to see how pouches perform and may include them after a range review next March. Apart from that, there hasn't been any NPD with a real wow factor lately - it's just been more about tweaking products.
Italian is the biggest sector, followed by Indian and Chinese; you can pretty well replicate a good Italian offering but I think it's harder with Indian, and particularly Chinese. The Thai sauces out there aren't that impressive either. Consumers' repertoires expand all the time but I'm not sure we'll see any new cuisines introduced. Instead there is a focus on healthy food and getting nasties out of products. I'd also like to see quality improve in some brands.
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