Nielsen Grocery stores should focus on the Grocerant niche.

Success does leave clues and Nielsen has been picking then us as well as anyone in the industry.  Regular readers of this blog know that fresh prepared reay-2-eat and heat-N-eat food has been driving success in all sectors of retail foodservice.

Last week “ Nielsen analysis indicates fresh foods have been the only departments posting sales increases in the mass merchandiser/supercenter and club channels, up 1.1% in mass merchandisers/supercenters and up 1.9% in club stores, driving their respective fresh food share growth.

Nielsen advises grocery retailers looking to take back fresh food market share to focus on prepared foods, which was the only deli category to show year-over-year growth in Q1 2011 (+3.5%). Leading products in this category by share of sales include prepared chicken (25%), salads (18%), sandwiches (11%) and entrees (also 11%).

In terms of year-over-year growth in dollar and unit sales, dips/spreads/toppings (12.3%) lead in dollar sales growth while platters (14.3%) lead in unit sales growth. None of these products reported negative growth in either dollar or unit sales, pizza had the lowest growth in both areas.”  We spotted this trend 7 years ago, welcome to our world Nielsen.

Outside eyes can deliver top sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions to provide brand and product positioning assistance or a grocerant program assessment. Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more on Steven A. Johnson and Foodservice Solutions visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant or on Facebook at Steven Johnson