The United Kingdom may be in the midst of a supermarket price war but consumers are paying more for their chilled seafood products than they were a year ago.
Chilled products account for 45 percent of the U.K. market’s seafood transactions and according to the latest Nielsen ScanTrack data published by Seafish, sales of these products totaled GBP 1.95 billion (EUR 2.71 billion; USD 2.88 billion) for the 12 months ending 28 February 2015, an increase of 1.9 percent. This was despite the volume sold falling 2.3 percent to 150,482 metric tons (MT). As a result, U.K. shoppers are paying an average price of GBP 12.94 (EUR 17.99; USD 19.13) per kilogram (kg) within the category, an increase of 4.2 percent.
In terms of the species sold, the chilled category continued to be dominated by salmon with sales of GBP 745 million (EUR 1 billion; USD 1.1 billion), followed by cod at GBP 177.3 million (EUR 246.5 million; USD 262.1 million) and coldwater prawns at GBP 151.8 million (EUR 211.1 million; USD 224.4 million). These species achieved sales growth rates of 6.6 percent, 1 percent and 20.4 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the products showing the biggest growth in the category last year were hake, lobster and sea bream with year-on-year sales increases of 69.4 percent, 53.9 percent and 33.9 percent, respectively.
Overall, U.K. seafood sales totaled GBP 3.13 billion (EUR 4.35 billion; USD 4.63 billion), a decrease of 1 percent year-on-year. This was based on a total volume of 334,610 MT, down 4.1 percent year-on-year, and meant that the average price of seafood sold in U.K. retail grew by 3.3 percent to GBP 9.37 (EUR 13.03; USD 13.85) per kg.
Frozen and ambient products achieved sales values of GBP 694.1 million (EUR 965.3 million; USD 1 billion) and GBP 493.8 million (EUR 687 million; USD 729.8 million), respectively. These totals were down 4.9 percent and 6 percent year-on-year. In volume terms, frozen sales dropped 7.3 percent to 110,250 MT, while the ambient total fell 2.9 percent to 73,878 MT.
It should be noted that Nielsen’s figures don’t include discounters’ sales and that the German companies Aldi and Lidl now have a combined 9 percent share of the U.K. grocery market, up from 5.4 percent in 2012.
According to the latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel, Aldi has become the country’s sixth-largest supermarket chain with 5.3 percent of the market. Its sales increased by 16.8 percent in the 12-week period ending 29 March 2015 thanks to an additional 500,000 new shoppers choosing to visit its stores this year. At the same time, the average basket size grew by 7 percent.
Kantar added that the 72.8 percent market share taken by the so-called “big four” retailers is now at the lowest level in a decade and that across the market, supermarkets are offering higher levels of promotion and as a result groceries are now more than 2 percent cheaper than they were a year ago.
Furthermore, its latest Meat, Fish and Poultry (MFP) figures for the 12 weeks ending 1 March 2015 found that U.K. retailers sold GBP 402.3 million (EUR 560.9 million; USD 594.7 million) worth of chilled seafood, 2.1 percent more than in the corresponding period of 2014. Of this, value-added product sales increased 5.4 percent year-on-year to GBP 104.9 million (EUR 146.2 million; USD 155.1 million), while the contribution from shellfish sales grew by 13.8 percent to GBP 51.9 million (EUR 72.4 million; USD 76.7 million). However, “natural” wet fish sales decreased by 3.4 percent to GBP 136.2 million (EUR 189.9 million; USD 201.4 million).
“Chilled fish has seen year-on-year volumes level off as fewer shoppers buy the category. Value continues to grow ahead of volume with premium shellfish helping to drive this. Natural fish is driving the slowdown in volume, led by haddock, trout and plaice, with volumes dropping back in the latest period,” said Nathan Ward, strategic insight director for MFP at Kantar.
