In the last year, supermarkets have introduced 22 new lines in the mini roast category to support the long-term sustainability of the sector.
The focus is also to encourage new consumers, due to new development work by AHDB Beef and Lamb.
The programme is helping to add value to the carcase while tackling faltering roast sales by encouraging a shift in consumer buying habits. This, in turn, aims to ensure beef and lamb products remain staples of the weekly shop and demonstrates their versatility and taste.
Mini roasts have been core to the AHDB Beef & Lamb market development strategy over the last three years, with a key promotional period taking place in autumn. This was to make the most of profuse availability of domestic product.
The promotion aims to encourage customers to select a mini roast for a convenient mid-week meal.Analysis of the most recent mini roast television adverts that ran in November, showed the short term impact of the campaign directly delivered £526,000.
This also had the ‘halo effect’ – where people saw the adverts and purchased other beef or lamb joints, adding up to £11 million or £12.7 million for the whole red meat roasting category.
The adverts reached 22 million households across Britain and resulted in sales being up for both beef and lamb.
Mike Whittemore, head of trade and product development for AHDB, commented: “Our analysis showed people switching from chicken to buy the beef and lamb products with a rise in the number of people saying the mini roast offered a quicker, easier way to roast than more traditional products.
“We do a lot of new product development work aimed at taking beef and lamb cuts and offering practical meal solutions for modern families, who demand convenience, especially during the working week. We then work with the processors and retailers to highlight the cuts, recipe ideas and promotion potential, ultimately with the aim of adding value to the carcase and ensuring the new product developed is available for consumers to buy in store.
“This is long-term work but these latest results show the approach is working and resonating with shoppers."
Laura Ryan, sector strategy director for AHDB Beef and Lamb, added: “The campaign is directly attributable to an increase in mini roast sales of £526,000 with a halo effect in the wider the roasting category of £12.7m. The campaign provided the best results for beef with 72% of the halo effect, and 14% lamb and 14% pork.
“The campaign was most successful with older shoppers, so for this year we will review our approach including further engagement with multiple retailers and their convenience ranges.
“While we are delighted with the results, it is important to remember this is one element of a broad marketing strategy that covers a very wide range of activity.”
This story was originally published on a previous version of the Meat Management website and so there may be some missing images and formatting issues.
