Opportunities for red meat growth in discount stores
A report by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) has found that bargain, discount and freezer stores could offer future growth for red meat sales.
According to The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD), discount, freezer and bargain stores are predicted to be worth an additional £6.6 billion per year by 2026 with much of this value switching from supermarkets.
The discount channel currently has 13.1% share of the total grocery market according to IGD and it is predicted to reach 15.0% by 2026.
AHDB reported that before the pandemic, discount, freezer and bargain stores were consistently seeing red meat growth, whereas total red meat volumes had fallen in to decline. During the pandemic, AHDB has seen this gap shrink as the channel tracks close to the total market growth.
The Board stated that the main driver of this has been the hard discounters. These stores over-index on red meat value compared to their share of total food and drink (excluding alcohol) sales (13%), making up 15% of red meat value sales and 18% of volumes over the last year (Kantar, 52 w/e 8th August 2021).
While bargain stores are a tiny channel for red meat, accounting for less than 1% of total volumes, AHDB has found that these channels were seeing considerable growth before the pandemic. However, they were not boosted by the pandemic in the same way as many other grocery stores.
AHDB said: “Bargain stores under trade in primary red meat, with much of the focus on processed pig meat. To appeal to shoppers for their big or top up shops, increasing the range of products on offer is essential to retain these shoppers in the future.
“Within red meat however, all subchannels under trade in lamb, if the category was to achieve its fair share, this could be worth approximately £48 million per year to the category. Hard discounter suppliers should consider different ways they could appeal to these shoppers with lamb but keeping a lower price than other retailers.”
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