Hand Held Food for Immediate Consumption

The world is catching on to the Grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh food even in pub filled Great Britain consumers are picking up fresh prepared Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared lunch option from supermarkets more often than ever, according to Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru®, Steven Johnson.. 

In Great Britain  7-Eleven, Tesco and Sainsbury’s as well as Pret, EAT and coffee chains all have aggressively positioned fresh Ready-2-Eat sandwiches as an faster alternative that is better for you than fast food according to Johnson.

In a recent study conducted by a Kantar Worldpanel focusing on the UK found, “the sandwich industry is worth £5.6bn a year.  Then as  you look at total Out of Home spending from the study retailers plus food service outlets like Greggs, Subway and so on. In retail specifically (that is, supermarkets, convenience stores, independent retailers etc.),

The Ready-2-Eat sandwich is in growth both in value (2.8%) and volume (4.2%), and is bought by 54.4% of the UK population according to the report. It is the most popular ‘quick meals’ category, showing that the British public simply can’t get enough of a good old bread-and-filling combo for on-the-go munching.

The Kantor study went on to day “Sandwiches are also being purchased for more occasions. Shoppers are now buying packaged sandwiches over 18 times a year, spending an average of £43.77 in total – helping make this a £1.2bn category. Tolga Necar, Analyst at Kantar Worldpanel, comments: ‘Sandwich growth is particularly impressive in the context of carried-out lunches (think lunch boxes for adults), which have seen growth of 87m occasions since the start of 2015 as consumers look to manage both cost and health by preparing lunch at home.’

Here’s something interesting. Of the various fillings on offer, just five make up 75.7% of the UK’s sandwich purchases: chicken, cheese, bacon, egg and ham. Despite innovation in the category, these more traditional fillings are also seeing the strongest growth, with 13.2% more chicken sandwich sales in 2017 over 2016, for example.

Necar continued ‘Within the retail environment, sandwiches are a relatively high value category. This is important because they can therefore support higher value transactions for retailers, whilst also representing a very affordable option for consumers – at just over £2 on average. It is the Full Price strategy that is driving growth – 85% of packs are bought at full price; but importantly this is at declining prices.’

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.