Festive beef sales top the Christmas tree
Festive beef sales top the Christmas tree
Increased demand for beef during the Christmas period has led to year-on-year sales growth in both value and volume, according to analysis of the latest Kantar Worldpanel data conducted by EBLEX.
Fresh beef sales have grown in both spend and volume with a greater number of consumers buying beef during the festive season. Turkey remained the favourite among shoppers, however almost half of UK households bought beef in the four-week Christmas period, a 3.5% year-on-year change in volume.
Whilst the roasting joint drove the performance of beef, increases were visible in other areas of the category. Stewing cuts, in particular, experienced a growth of 3% in spend.
Nick Allen, sector director of EBLEX, said: “It is positive to see stewing cuts performing so well. Although this might be a trend unique to the festive period, it is one EBLEX is keen to capitalise on. Much of our trade marketing activity will concentrate on furthering the appeal of stews and casseroles with consumers across the board and working with retailers to ensure the category maintains constant growth.”
Online sales of fresh meat were also amplified in 2014 with an extra 259,000 households buying their Christmas meat and poultry online, compared with 2013. Lamb was the success of the online sales boost, experiencing the most online sales growth in both value and volume of all the major proteins. Overall, the entire lamb category saw increases of 2.5% this Christmas.
