Kantar’s latest report shows rises in value sales, additional shoppers and existing shoppers’ trips for fish over the last 12 weeks, compared to the same time last year.
Value sales of chilled fish have risen 7.6% year-on-year, an increase of 16% on 2019. Kantar reported the increase as being fuelled by the popularity of added value products which grew by 29.9%. Breaded fish was the only fish sector to face decline, losing 10.9% in spend.
Overall, the fresh fish category has gained over 600,000 additional shoppers in the 12 weeks to 11th July 2021 compared with the same period last year, with added value alone gaining more than 1.3 million. Existing shoppers, the reported stated, have also been making more trips, which has driven frequency.
The report claimed that the sunshine and good weather, alongside England’s performance in the Euros, helped total grocery sales remain strong compared with pre-pandemic times. This included fresh primary meat and poultry, where shopper spend over the last 12 weeks was up 9.6% on the same period in 2019. Nevertheless, the growth in this category, when compared to that achieved in 2020, has underperformed compared to the wider grocery market.
Despite the good weather making a comeback following the wettest May on record, spend on burgers and grills continued to decline, dropping 9.1% as shoppers left the sector and existing shoppers made fewer trips. In contrast, sales of meat-free products continued to grow strongly at 15.4%, as 1.1 million new shoppers flocked to the category compared with the same period in 2020.
The fresh primary meat and poultry category continued to decline across both spend and volume through the 12 weeks ending 11 July 2021, with year-on-year drops of 9.7% and 9.5% respectively, driven by beef and pork.
Fresh processed poultry was the only key category to achieve growth across both value and volume sold (7.5% and 5.9% respectively), boosted by the 1.3 million new shoppers who have entered the market since the same period in 2020.
Kantar stated: “Looking forward to the second half of 2021, we can expect to see category performance continue to drop below the unprecedented growth recorded in 2020, with OOH increasing capacity as consumers gain confidence and Covid-19 restrictions are lifted entirely.”
