Fresh Turkey Sales Drop 30%
Fresh Joints and Cuts Most Severely Affected
Wednesday February 21th 2007 OXFORD: The first sales data available since the Avian Flu outbreak at the Bernard Matthews farm in Suffolk earlier this month was released today and shows dramatic declines in the sales of turkey throughout Britain. Data from Nielsen's Scantrack service which compiles actual sales data as recorded through the EPoS checkout scanners in all major food retailers in the country and represents sales at more than 74,000 stores shows sales decreases of 30% for fresh turkey in the week ending 10th February 2007 versus the previous week sales (a drop from £3.4 million to £2.4 million) and 20% decreases when compared with the same week period last year. Frozen Turkey sales fell by 33% on a YoY and a Week on week basis.
"Despite experts assuring the public that there is no risk of humans contracting avian flu via the food chain we have still recorded a significant drop in turkey sales." Commented Eleni Nicholas, Group Managing Director of ACNielsen UK and Ireland.
Within turkey, all variants have suffered:
Table 1: Turkey Sales by Type
PLEASE SEE ATTACHMENT FOR CLEARER TABLES
Turkey Type WoW % Change* YoY % Change
Fresh Turkey -30.2% -20.5%
Fresh Turkey Cuts & Joints -30.3% -25.2%
Fresh Turkey Treated Pieces -30.0% -5.4%
Frozen Turkey -33.5% -33.3%
*WoW = weekly sales for w/e 3rd Feb 2007 compared to w/e 10th Feb 2007 YoY = weekly sales for w/e 10th Feb 2007 compared to the same week in 2006
Throughout this period, Chicken sales have not been as badly affected. YoY Chicken sales actually rose 3% when comparing sales for w/e 10th February with the same week in 2006. When comparing with the previous week however, sales fell 8.5%. "Since early January fresh Chicken sales have been fairly consistent at around £34 million per week but dropped to £31.5 million in the week ending 10th February 2007." Added Ms Nicholas.
Declines in fresh turkey have hit all areas of the country. Sales in the South West were comparatively worst affected - here sales of Turkey cuts and joints fell by 11% (-28%) more than average on a year on year basis. Sales were least affected in Yorkshire and Scotland where sales declined 26% and 7% less than average respectively.
Consumers Switch to Meat & Fish
Overall the week ending 10th February was a strong week for Meats as consumers traded up from turkey and poultry to beef and pork. Sales in the whole meat, fish and poultry category were +10% versus a year ago and up against an annual average of 5.6%. This was driven by increases in fresh beef (+18.4% YoY - annual average +6.2%) and fresh pork (+17% - annual average +5.5%) when looking at w/e 10th Feb versus the previous year. Fresh Lamb sales also increased by 12% YoY but this has been strong all year. Bacon and sausage sales were up significantly also at +11.6% (annual average 3.2%) and +18.2% (annual average +5%) for the week ending 10th February when compared with the same week last year.
Fish sales also rose significantly with Frozen having a particularly strong week. Frozen fish cakes grew 17.8% YoY for the week (the previous week sales were up 1.8% YoY). Frozen natural fish grew 12.1% w/e 10th Feb versus the previous year. Again, this represents almost double the growth seen prior to the scare.
