It would be easy to assume that the prepared salad and veg category would just keep on growing in perpetuity, given it hits so many of the sweet spots of current consumer needs.
Easy to use, convenient and applicable to a wide range of dishes, prepared produce continues to be a consumer favourite, with Kantar data showing a 2.9 per cent increase in volume sales – equivalent to almost 30 million packs – in the year to 21 April. However that doesn’t tell the full picture, as price deflation of 2.8 per cent drove down category value to leave it flat against the previous year. While that might lead to some disappointment among suppliers, it has at least bought an influx of new shoppers into the category.
On the salad side in particular, sales tend to be linked strongly to the weather – and this year has been slow to get going so far. “This first quarter of 2019 has not seen significant overall category growth,” says Tom Amery, managing director of The Watercress Company. “This is perhaps no big surprise when you consider what was happening this time last year. By now in 2018, we were experiencing exceptionally hot weather for the time of year and salad sales were soaring as consumers were happy to move earlier than usual to al fresco dining. With only the hot spell over the Easter weekend to compare, sales of salads are significantly down year on year.”
While that may sound downbeat, the longevity of the hot weather in 2018 brought a certain ‘salad fatigue’ by the end of the season, according to Amery, as well as periods of shortages. A more consistent spell of weather could therefore be beneficial in the end, he adds: “There is a high possibility that sales will exceed those of last year in the second and third quarters as an Indian summer often boosts sales after the traditional holiday period in the first couple of weeks in August. This could also be boosted with a rising popularity of staycations in mainland UK.”
Prepared salad giant Florette points to the fact that across the salad category, some 43 million more packs were sold in the UK market versus the year before, a figure undoubtedly boosted by the long summer. Category controller Polly Davies says that suppliers like Florette need to ensure they capitalise on the appetite for salads – where eight in ten buy into the category – and develop new propositions to meet the expanding needs of the UK shopper.
That could include salad as part of a convenient lunch meal as consumers look for quick and healthy solutions, either at their office desks or out and about on a sunny day. To that end Florette has introduced a number of combination bowls featuring lines such as BBQ Chicken and Bacon Crispy Salad, and Chicken and Sweetcorn Crunchy Salad.
The brand has also launched two new salad varieties in 2019 in the shape of a Superfood Vitality Mix and Sweet Crispy, and two further additions to the prepared vegetable category are due this summer, including a second beetroot product to build on the success of its Florette Beetroot Pouch.
Such innovation underlines the work being done in the prepared category, and as the weather hots up, expect volume sales to do so too.
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