Grape consumption in the UK has been steady for the last five years at a value of £800m. Speaking at The Global Grape Summit last week, Joe Shaw Roberts Consumer Insight Director from Kantar Worldpanel explained that the reason for this is people making more trips for grapes and new varieties (red, white, black and mixed) is part of that, if there are new varieties on offer, they are more likely to come back. Nearly 85% of the UK population buy grapes over the year.
Price is influenced by the discounters ALDI and Lidl gaining an extra 6% share across grapes, bringing the value down.
“Although extra trips are driving grape sales it is the economy and premium tiers which are driving consumption long term and contributing to lower prices. Value own labels have driven produce sales over the whole of the fresh produce sector. When ASDA launched its Farm Stores range volumes shot up ahead of value. Wonky fruit and veg ranges have also driven sales and seen an increase of £38m over the last year with a third of the population now buying it.
Although the discounters and economy ranges are bringing value down, the premium brands are helping increase the average prices in fresh produce.
“Discounters have contributed strongly to lower prices over the last few years going from 11% share of the market to 17% over five years, which is a pretty significant growth. In the UK the classic white grapes which have the majority of the volume is in decline but there is solid growth over other colours, particularly black and mixed.”
White grapes are mostly bought by the younger less affluent shopper, people who buy different varieties tend be more affluent.
“A significant number of shoppers buy 3 varieties over the course of a year. The more we can encourage shoppers to buy these different grape varieties the more valuable they are, so we need to be thinking how we can get people to buy more varieties.”
People who buy more different varieties tend to be more affluent, older and shopping in the discounters and will also buy apples, bananas and citrus. So, link deals with other fruit or multiple grape varieties may be a good way to encourage sales.
“The incentives for doing so are substantial, if we get 10% of the shoppers who buy two types of grapes to buy three types of grapes next year it could be worth £9 million, if we get the shoppers who buy three types to buy four types it could be worth £10 million.”
Retailers are already doing link deals; ALDI do the Super Six which doesn’t just drive engagement through price it encourages shoppers to try different varieties and trying different things which are instore.