Young families drive volumes for Meat & Poultry

The latest Meat, Fish and Poultry (MFP) figures from Kantar Worldpanel, published today for the 12 weeks ending 13th September 2015 have seen a further slow down in the volume growth for Fresh Primary Meat & Poultry. Shoppers without Children are holding back volumes, whilst Families with Children under 9 are driving volume growth in both the Fresh Primary and Processed markets.

Red Meat is holding back the volume growth as Poultry sees a stronger performance. Red Meat performance is held back by Pork and Beef, whilst Lamb has moved back into slight volume growth after a tough Summer. Nathan Ward, Business Unit Director for Meat, Fish & Poultry explains “Lamb growth has been driven by prices falling on products which are ingredients in a dish (markets such as Mince and Diced Lamb), rather than the core focus of the meal.”. Mince particularly has seen a strong increase in Price promotions driving value and volume growth. The growth in Lamb Ingredients has been driven by Pre-Family and Older Families (those with children over 10).

Following National Burger Day, we did see a 1% uplift in Burger & Grills sales, but this is still some way behind the annual growth 5% for the category. Burgers growth has been driven by families, despite promotions dropping back slightly this year. The national obsession with the weather has hit Barbeques this year, with the slightly colder summer driving less Barbeques, spending £24m less on BBQs this year. Bacon has seen decline in value and volume, with promotional levels pulling back and shoppers buying smaller baskets less often. Joints & Steaks are the heart of the decline seeing double digit decline this year.

Despite promotional levels falling back compared to last year, Chilled Fish remains the stand out performer in value terms driven by Added Value , Battered and Smoked Fish. Salmon remains the key species and is growing ahead of the market driven by 290,000 more shoppers this year. As a nation, we don’t disappoint in fulfilling stereotypes. Fish on a Friday remains the key time to buy fish, with Battered and Breaded Fish stronger on that day.

The next data release will be out in 4 weeks time, will we see volume sales in Fresh Primary Meat & Poultry drop back further?