While other countries seem to be showing signs of lifting themselves out of the recession, some say that the UK is still firmly lagging behind. But the salad category tells a different tale, with innovation and motivation for new tastes and textures, particularly when it comes to the lettuce mix, leading the way.
UK supplier of salad products for foodservice and retail, Hazeldene, held its second round of trials in the UK to find something different to put that little bit extra onto consumers’ plates this month, and found that customers and consumers, as always, are looking for a point of difference, despite the economic downturn.
With mainly food processors in mind, Hazeldene has been trialling different strengths of rocket, chards, herbs and cresses, as well as multileaf, baby leaf and wholehead lettuce.
A lot of attention was given to salad rocket and stronger-tasting variants of wild rocket, in the hope that different flavours will be introduced into both multiple bagged lettuce and catering and sandwich manufacturing mixes.
It was explained to customers that the flavour of rocket changes each time it is cut and by the fifth cut it has a very strong, mature flavour. The leaves also have a longer shelf life, but salad rocket, which has a different shape and milder taste, helps to extend the English rocket season.
At a time when customers are crying out for value and taste, Hazeldene aims to guide the industry towards putting some variety back into the lettuce sub-category.
Elsewhere in the industry, there has been some innovation in more versatile salad products, with products that can be used for both hot and cold weather meals, like salad leaves that can be stir fried. As a result, brands such as Wok Or Not are now being recognised in the supermarket. There has also been a significant shift to more convenient pack formats, such as pre-packed tomatoes and peppers, and the move from wholehead to bagged salads is still going strong.
But with the success of the multileaf format, wholehead lettuce may be in for a resurgence of interest. A major part of Hazeldene’s trial, multileaf took centre stage. “This grows as an adult lettuce and has an appearance of an adult lettuce, but instead of a central core it just needs one snip and the same size leaves fall away,” says Steven Ball, Hazeldene’s raw material technician. “This works well with lollo verde types and we are developing types that provide crunch and taste. Customers are looking for more red lettuce, like losso rosso, but usually the trade in for colour is flavour and the leaves can be quite bland in taste. We are looking for a better-tasting lollo rosso that can be grown as a multileaf, but we also need the red colour to continue throughout the leaf. This is particularly important for bagged lettuce, as each cut needs to have some red on it. It is no good if whole pieces appear green. A few of the mutlileaf lettuces we are trialling will go into the market as wholeheads, but the product will mostly go into mixed bags. Multileaf is great for us for the fact that it is easy to process and growers can get more of it on the ground, as it can be harvested quicker. We are also trialling the dual variety, which is a Nunhems variety and will be released onto the market next year.”
There has also been a lot of development with romaine-type lettuce, with the aim of producing a boat-shaped leaf that can hold a filling and have less of the leaf’s -sometimes bitter-tasting - white stem. The Midi Cos is a particular favourite in this market and Hazeldene is currently testing the popularity of crossing Red Batavia with cos for a cherry red-coloured cos leaf.
Mustards have been receiving a good deal of attention lately and it looks like their heat and flavour will be integrated into more higher-end salad mixes in the near future. Pea shoots are also on the up, with different varieties coming onto the market, and both young carrot and beetroot leaves could be making an appearance on the shelves soon.
Meanwhile, the summer of 2009 has been described as “predictably unpredictable”, with some decent spells of sunny weather, but certainly not the barbecue summer the Met Office promised. The heatwave that began in late June lasted for the first few days of July, with temperatures widely approaching 30°C. Then the rain came, which resulted in July provisionally being the wettest July on record for England and Wales. In reality, the summer of 2009 was slightly wetter than July 2007 and much wetter than July 2008.
But the good news was that despite these weather influences and a tougher economic environment, consumers were still keen on bagged salad, resulting in a 12 per cent sales growth for the category. This increased demand was made up of people making the most of the warm spells when they did arrive - whether at home or on ‘staycation’ - as well as enjoying more regular out-of-home dining, as demonstrated by strong growth across the foodservice side of the category.
Florette especially enjoyed a strong share of growth in the bagged salad category and experienced a 21 per cent uplift in its core Crispy range, showing that consumers were sticking to what they knew during tough trading conditions.
“Whatever the weather, one thing remains clear: bagged salad shoppers will continue to turn to those products and brands that give them the reassurance of the best quality and value,” says Sandy Sewell, commercial director of Florette UK. “The Florette brand continued to support the category through the summer of 2009, with marketing in the form of a £1.5 million TV campaign in July and August and promotional activity. The brand is set to launch an exciting new wave of NPD, designed to continue to drive category sales into the winter months.”
As the Met Office predicts a “barbecue autumn”, following early September highs of 23°C in the UK, the salad industry is understandably wary and is starting to look towards Spanish product.
Best of british for co-operative.
The declining global economy and reduced consumer confidence has caused consumers to watch their expenditure more this quarter, leading to a clear growth in sales of value lines and those with strong price points, writes Carla Mills, The Co-operative’s category buyer for salads.
As a reflection of the economy, promotions have increased significantly. However, sales of The
Co-operative’s premium range salads - within the Truly Irresistible sub-brand - have remained strong, indicating that some consumers are cutting back on expenditure on eating out and, instead, treating themselves at the supermarket.
Despite poor weather for the third consecutive year, the only sub-category with slight volume decline is wholehead lettuce - although double-digit growth is coming from bagged salads, as they continue to steal share. Encouragingly, there is continued strong support for British and regional salad lines, with much interest and positive feedback from customers for the quality and flavour of these products - especially those from our premium range.
The Co-operative insists on a majority of British-sourced salads during the season - including loose and six-pack tomatoes, all premium range tomatoes, loose, three-pack and premium range peppers, whole and portion cucumbers, all wholehead lettuce, spring onions, radish, cress and growing herbs. We also source much of our salad beetroot from our own farms, sold under our Grown By Us sub-brand.
Due to the large uplifts in demand we see when product is on promotion, we do allow imported product to supplement our British volumes - and where products are not grown in the UK on any significant scale, such as beef and cherry tomatoes, we source the majority of winter salad lines from Spain and the Canaries. We try to source more British product in season because of customer demand and for its freshness, quality and flavour, as well as the lessened environmental impact it has through reduced road miles. This all fits in with our overall brand position and aims as the UK’s leading responsible retailer.
Customer demand is heavily influenced by the weather. For many, when the sun shines, there is an immediate switch from vegetable lines into salad. Although this year has been slightly better, we have had a few years of little or no summer. The challenge is how to entice customers into the salad category during periods of poor and inconsistent weather through the eating experience our products deliver and tempting promotional activity.
As we go into autumn, The Co-operative’s salad range pulls back to make space for vegetables, in line with customer purchasing behaviour. But we are always looking for innovative, new and fantastic-flavoured products that really deliver something different. However, these products must appeal to a broad spectrum of our customers, as rate of sale can be an issue with some of the more specialist lines. We have had great success in some seasonal products that we stock for a few months when they are at their best.
When it comes our supply base, we need to work with growers that have a focus on and understanding of our business and our customers, and an understanding of the principles of The Co-operative. Ethics, the environment and social responsibility are all key streams into which our suppliers must fit. We expect growers to be experienced in their product area, have high standards in growing practices and show enthusiasm and passion for their product and industry.
There is a good future for UK agriculture and horticulture. Support for UK production remains high, and concern over food miles will come to the fore again. In the future, UK grower numbers will probably reduce, but individual producers will become bigger. Those growers willing to invest can grow excellent crops here in the UK and will produce fresher and better-quality food for it. As long as our customers continue to look for British, the future is bright.
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