A variety of butchers and a grocery specialist have spoken exclusively to Meat Management about poultry’s current performance, with a fantastic response.
Claire Holland, manager of The Q Guild of Butchers, explained that the organisation’s butcher members are currently reporting fantastic poultry sales right across the board, growing year on year.
She said that the poultry category features some the most profitable products butchers are selling, with chicken standing out in particular.
One member, Corry’s Butchers in Stockport, stocks over 30 different British only poultry products including turkey, duck and chicken in its daily display, all sourced from small independent farmers.
Jan Corry specialises in product development in the shop. She finds chicken to be the most versatile to use and an easy product to add value to by creating different kitchen ready products and all her most popular dishes are said to contain poultry.
She says: “I find chicken is definitely the 'go to' product for most of our customers who are looking for a light, quick meal.”
Rob McManus, assistant manager at Cranston’s flagship Cumbrian Food Hall, added: “Poultry is an obvious meat choice for the huge number of customers who are health conscious.”
Butcher Kathryn Meadows concluded that convenience products and deals bolster the category.
She said: “We have a range of three for £10 and we do a selection of two chicken breasts in a sauce/marinade that is oven ready. These fly out the door.”
Sales in supermarkets
Supermarkets are also reporting high volumes of poultry sales, with the latest Meat, Fish and Poultry (MFP) Market Update from Kantar Worldpanel revealing sales growth across all macro categories.
This is a performance that is said to have not been seen in the market in three years.
Kantar Worldpanel states that shoppers made 3.2m more shopping trips for poultry during the 12 weeks leading to 15th July. The trips included chicken, and volume growth for legs (+8%), breasts (+8%) and whole birds (+5%) helped it to rule the roost.
Commenting on the performance of various different products, MFP specialist Nathan Ward said fresh processed poultry such as barbecue drumsticks or coated chicken is growing at a slightly slower rate, but has still attracted an extra 435,000 shoppers this summer compared to last.
He added: “Chicken is experiencing soaring volume sales. Retailers are using promotions to encourage shoppers to fire up their barbecues.”
For more poultry insight, look out for the poultry feature in the upcoming September edition of Meat Management magazine.
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.
