Grocery Report: The Shape of Things to Come

No Compromise
The recession has given us the opportunity to assess how serious consumers are about their new food habits: when money is tight, people buy only what they really need. In the U.S. market, despite the economic downturn, private-label sales and introductions have increased, as Mintel points out in a study published in July, adding that “new private-label products with premium ingredients, portability, and health benefits are precisely what’s luring shoppers.”

Canadian private-label brands also have their share of new, innovative products. One need only look at Metro’s private-label brand, Irresistibles, which officially launched in the fall of 2007. This is an excellent example of a value-added private-label brand whose objective is to offer premium-quality and exclusive products that reflect both market trends and changing consumer habits.

Another example that highlights private-label brand capacity for innovation is Sensations, Sobeys Ontario’s premium-quality private-label brand. In August, Sensations launched a new line of air-chilled chicken products featuring only grain-fed, Ontario-grown poultry. These products are designed to meet “the increasing demand for provincially grown” foods and to support a “buy Ontario first” strategy, according to a Sobeys Ontario spokesperson. This kind of initiative, unthinkable just a couple of years ago, shows how national brands are now being challenged on their own turf. The motto “innovate or die” is now more relevant than ever.

The Pleasure Principle
Despite the burgeoning market for products offering health benefits, the biggest driver of food innovation continues to be pleasure. Some 37 per cent of all innovative products to hit shelves in Canada last year featured attributes related to pleasure, whether it was exoticism, the opportunity to explore new tastes, sophistication or ethnic flair.

The story doesn’t end there, however. Besides simple pleasure, food hedonism – cooking for pleasure, enjoying a trip to the supermarket, appreciating a good meal at a restaurant, etc. – grew sharply in Canada (+15 per cent) between 2007 and 2008. It is now a consideration for 55 per cent of the population.

We have a God-given impulse to enjoy food, an inherent gift that has enabled us to survive across the ages, that inspires us to share good meals with others, and pass on favourite recipes from one generation to the next. Pleasure, it seems, is still a key part of the equation, no matter how health-conscious we are becoming. Now that’s very healthy.