Meat + Poultry - November 2010 - 42

National Meat Case Study

Beyond benchmarks
The fourth National Meat Case Study
reveals telling trends
BY JOEL CREWS
jcrews@sosland.com

hree years removed from the previous survey designed to provide
a snapshot of the typical retail meat
case, results of the fourth study of its
kind were recently released. The findings of the 2010 National Meat Case
Study reflected, among other trends,
the impact of the recession on consumer purchasing and merchandising
trends in supermarket and club store
meat departments. Increased usage of
nutritional labeling continued while
new information tracking, including

throughout 31 states. A total of 133
stores were audited, including nine
club stores. The goal of this study and
the previous ones (conducted in 2002,
2004 and 2007), is to provide a comprehensive look at the fresh-meat case
and other products sharing the meat
case used to cross-sell meat and poultry in both self-serve and full-service
meat departments. Being the fourth
installment of the study, researchers
have now established trending information over an eight-year time period

2010 National Meat Case Study:
Sample Size and Scope

the midst of a recession or on its way
out of one, Kelly says with certainty
that when it comes to the meat case,
"Things have changed" since the
2007 survey. A drastic shift away from
national brands in the meat case was
one telling indicator of the sputtering
economy in the 2010 NMCS. Storebrand growth spiked since the 2004
study across all species. The percentage of packages in supermarkets that
were store brands tripled from 12 percent in 2004 to 36 percent in 2010.
The increase came at the expense of
supplier brands, which shrunk from
50 percent to 37 percent during the
same period. "Suppliers are producing a lot more store-level product for
retailers and retailers are really investing in their own brands," he says.

Club store watch

Comparable samples used for trend analysis are based on the 2002 sample, which
excluded heat-and-serve, smoked offal, corned beef and sausage.

Country-of-Origin-Labeling data,
was collected for the fi rst time.
Jerry Kelly, National Retail Account
Manager for Sealed Air's Cryovac
brand, led the recent discussion, beginning with some information about the
data collection and the methodology.
In this and previous studies, auditors
conducted their research during the
first quarter of the year, to avoid any
skewed results related to holiday sales.
The team audited the major supermarket chains representing 51 markets

and during a wide range of economic
conditions. As in years past, the audit
team was comprised of graduate students from Texas Tech Univ.'s meat science and animal-science programs who
collected the data, which was analyzed
by First Stage Marketing. Partners on
the project also included Sealed Air's
Cryovac Food Packaging, the Beef
Checkoff Program and the National
Pork Board.
While arguments can be made
as to whether the US economy is in

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

While the sample size of club stores (a
total of nine) was much smaller than the
supermarkets, Kelly points out the percentage of chicken packages showed the
biggest increase (10 percent) in the meat
cases of the warehouse-type stores, at 28
percent compared to 2007. Notably, the
percentage of pork packages substantially dropped among the club stores,
from 46 percent in 2007 to 23 percent
in 2010. Part of the explanation for the
marked decrease has been attributed to
the lower pork production numbers and
slightly higher prices during the quarter
the survey was conducted.
However, John Green, the National Pork Board's strategic marketing director, says sales reports
among club store customers during
the time when the survey was conducted were strong. "Our contacts

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Meat + Poultry - November 2010

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