Meat + Poultry - November 2010 - 28

DELI OVERVIEW

"Give the consumer a sample, ask how
they want the products cut - that's why you
see so many people in the store standing in
front of the deli counter to be served."

so many people in the store standing
in front of the deli counter waiting to
be served."
Times have changed. Before the
recession, Patterson says, the big
issue in the deli world was packaging, more than consumer sampling. "Two or three years ago, the
issue was packaging.
The major concern in
the industry was deli
vs. pre-pack. But delis
had already made the
move into pre-pack,"
he says. "But that was
then and this is now."
Patterson says two maPatterson
jor things are happening now. "When the recession hit,
grocery retailers were going along
with private labeling. But with the

"As we went into the
recession, we saw
growth in deli sales
and packaged meats.
The packaged deli-meat
market, in particular,
did well during the
recession."
onset of this major recession in a big
way, private labeling began to grow
enormously. And it will continue to
grow because the consumer doesn't
see buying private-label products
as necessarily a step-down. There
are really good private-label products out now, especially deli products, and consumers are very satisfied with them. There are also really
good branded, quality products out
now, as well."
So, Patterson asks how will these
two developments interact? What will
happen as recession ends? "Will consumers go back en masse to brands?"
he adds. "Some will, but many will
stay with private-label deli products."
That's because he believes there is

less concern about buying brandname products, especially in the
deli world. "If consumers are buying
packaged meats, they know pretty
much what they're getting," he says.
"But if the retailer is trying to energize the consumer, and is promoting their own [private-label] brand,
they're actually sending a stronger
message. 'This is not just a branded
cheddar, but our own locally branded
aged cheddar.'"
"The main point is, consider the
customer is already is engaged with
private-labeling, or store brands, in
many types of products, including,
but not limited to, food. If stores can
translate that involvement with private-labeling or store brands to the
deli center, they engage their customers even more." "The second part of
this, though, is there will be a pickup
in interest, and in purchasing of premium products as consumer confidence returns and the recession retreats. In the supermarket and in the
deli, there will be more interest in premium products, because when bad
economic times end, people always
want to move up. But after what we're
going through, some caution will remain. Consumption of private-label
products will also continue."
According to Symphony IRI
Group, a Chicago-based market research fi rm, for the past year ending
Oct. 3, lunch-meat sales, not including Wal-Mart, club stores or convenience stores, by vendor totaled
$3,537,939,000, an increase of 0.70
percent over a year ago. Non-sliced
lunch meat totaled $163,569,600, a
2.29 percent increase. For non-sliced
lunch meats, during the past year up

28 * Meat&Poultry * November 2010 * www.MeatPoultry.com

to Oct. 3, vendors rankings were led
by private labels, followed by:
* Private-label
* Sara Lee Food & Beverage
* Boar's Head
* John Morrell & Co.
* Con Agra Foods
* Kraft Foods
* Johnsonville Foods
* Jennie-O Turkey Store
* Bridgford Foods
* Neese's Sausage
Sliced lunch meat by vendors totaled
$3,374,370,000, an increase of 0.63
percent over a year ago. Rankings, for
this category were:
* Kraft Foods
* Private label
* Sara Lee
* Land O'Frost
* Carl Buddig
* Bar-S Foods
* Armour Eckrich
* Hormel/ John Morrell
* Greenwood Packing
Top rankings for sliced lunch meat
were:
* Oscar Mayer
* Private label
* Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh
* Hillshire Farm
* Land O' Frost Premium
* Bar-S Foods
* Buddig
* Sara Lee
* Hormel
* Louis Rich ■
Bernard Shire is M&P's Washington correspondent, contributing editor and feature writer based
in Lancaster, Pa. He also works as a food safety
consultant and writer for Shire & Associates LLC.
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Meat + Poultry - November 2010

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