Focus On Bacon & Sausages

It’s been a good year for bacon and sausages, with the latter far exceeding expectations. How can the industry continue to turn up the heat over the next 12 months, asks Julia Glotz

Sausages have managed to confound expectations this year. After the flurry of new launches in 2008 and 2009, suppliers feared the category had lost its NPD spark in 2010 and was facing a period of retrenchment and diminished growth in 2011.

In fact, growth has accelerated – and there’s good news across all sausage subcategories, bar low-fat and economy. Value sales of fresh sausages have increased by 4.2% to £516.6m, with volume up 2.4% year-on-year, compared with value and volume growth of 3.1% and 1% the previous year.

So how did the category manage to improve growth against expectations – and what are supermarket buyers expecting from bacon and sausages in 2012?

Also in Focus On Bacon & Sausages

Anyone for bangers & cash?
We ask buyers in the mults how sausages have been selling over the past 12 months

Vanilla bacon & duck sausages
Innovation in such established categories can be hard – but some are doing it well

Premium or low-priced?
Rashers are driving bacon sales, but which sub-sectors are keeping sausages hot?