Meal Assembly Foodservice Secret Sauce

Family meals today are no longer cooked from scratch for the most part.  In fact Foodservice Solutions® team found that in 2016 84% of meals prepared in the home had one or more meal components that were fresh prepared at a retailer purchased for convenience / time savings.  

Consumers are dynamic not static and food retailers and private label fresh food manufactures are evolving, searching and identifying way improved ways to track consumer dynamics, convenience, and household trends to save consumers both time and money and a vast majority of that focus is on grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food as regular readers of this blog know.  

Sarah Schmansky, director of Nielsen Fresh stated “Understanding the choices consumers make in the grocery store are vital in helping retailers drive image, reputation, and trips to the fresh prepared and deli section,” …Improvements to drive increased fresh-prepared purchases can be approached in many different ways, including meal solution type, operational improvements, and aligning specific food items and featured cuisines most closely to the intended store audience.”

While only a portion of the home assembled meal is comprised of grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food.  Nielsen’s new report Power of Fresh Prepared/Deli sheds additional light to help retails evolve. 

Here are some key findings from the report:

·         Driving image, reputation and trips is important to grow deli/fresh prepared, particularly as store/deli visits are declining. Fresh/deli prepared had 96 percent penetration yet only 12 percent of shoppers visit the deli with regularity across channels and banners. Making deli/fresh prepared a true point of differentiation can pay huge dividends for the department and total store.

·         Tying into mega trends and touting health and wellness claims may accelerate sales growth in deli/fresh prepared. Shoppers are interested in seeing deli/fresh prepared featuring organic, locally-sourced, non-GMO, gluten free and other mega trend- inspired foods that are aggressively growing sales in other parts of the store.

·         Focus on convenience as the overarching advantage of deli/fresh prepared versus home-cooked meals. Extensive variety helps suit different preferences among household members. Other advantages include saving money on potentially discarded food and offering more convenient options for those who do not or cannot cook on a given occasion.

·         Elevate the profile of the food itself: driving food theater, ambiance, customization, professional chefs and meal inspiration. When compared with restaurants, shoppers see the ability to combine errands and time savings as the top two advantages of deli/fresh prepared.

·         Offer variety across all types of meal options, including number of options, cuisines and regular rotation of offerings. Constant innovation is required to stay on top of flavors, ingredients and customizable options, primarily around mainstream, premium and value options.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant