Sales of beef steaks at five-year high with market worth £939 million

The red meat steak category overall was worth £939 million in the 12 months to September 2016

Sales of beef steaks are at a five-year high and account for almost 70 per cent of sales in the category.

The red meat steak category overall was worth £939 million in the 12 months to September 2016, according to data from Kantar Worldpanel.

It would appear beef steaks are standing up well to the longer-term challenge for red meat, with current volumes ahead of that in the year 2000.

AHDB Senior Consumer Insight Analyst Steven Evans said: “This is not bad for a category where consumers have experienced paying nearly twice the price they did sixteen years ago.

“More than half the GB population bought a beef steak at some point this year, with households spending, on average, £43 a year in the category.

“Beef and lamb steaks attract an older, slightly more affluent shopper than the average ‘meat, fish and poultry’ shopper. Like the wider meat category, beef steaks have seen reduced levels of multi-buy promotions and the majority of steaks’ sales are now on non-promoted lines.

'Ribeye has experienced strong growth'

Steve said the performance of pork steaks’ performance was more challenging, volumes have been reducing steadily despite the average price lowering over the past three years.

Collectively, the majority of beef steak sales are accounted for in the more traditional cuts such as rump, sirloin and ribeye, all of which have been in growth over the past year.

Steve said: “Ribeye in particular has experienced strong growth over the past year and doubled its volume share in the last four years.”

The ‘other’ category within beef steaks is one to be watched; it’s largely driven by quick fry, sandwich/minute steaks or ‘thin cuts’, as AHDB has labelled the category.

While in growth in the past year, it does currently sit slightly behind where volumes were three years ago.

AHDB Beef & Lamb did initial consumer research on thin cut steaks in June 2015, which highlighted a category quite different from traditional steak segments. It highlighted that ‘thin cuts’ offer a distinct position within the steak category.