Morrisons has increased steak sales by 7% following the introduction of a new Steak Bar area in some of its stores.

Steak Bars group together all prime steaks available in Morrisons on one highly visible, stand-alone fixture, alongside steak sauces, recipe booklets and take-home cooking instructions. The concept was developed by meat levy body Eblex and introduced in Morrisons on a trial basis at the end of 2012.

Morrisons meat and fish project manager Paul Robinson said the bars were now in 90 stores, with more to come given their positive impact on sales. “Stores with a steak bar saw an average increase in sales of 7% across the range of fillet, rump, sirloin, rib, ribeye, Denver, feather and bullet steaks,” he said.

Morrisons would want the bars in all its stores “in an ideal world”, but might not be able to where display space in the butchery department was limited, he added. “We will roll it out to more stores that have sufficient shelf space in the next 12 months.”

The steaks sold in the bars are cut by Morrisons’ in-store butchers and “overwrapped” rather than pre-packaged. The bars offered added convenience to shoppers, claimed Robinson. “We believed there was an opportunity to help our customers by making the prime steaks easier to select by displaying them all together in one place.”

The steak bar concept was launched by Eblex to boost sales of British steaks, particularly alternative cuts such as the flat iron steak.

Morrisons is the first of the mults to implement the concept, but Eblex trade marketing manager Mike Whittemore said other mults were now also starting to show an interest. “What Morrisons has done is excellent - it is using its own design, showing that you can tailor-make the concept to fit individual retailers.”

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