Vic Robertson
Asda's switch to Aberdeen-Angus beef for its Extra Special' range has cut customer complaints about quality by 60%, the multiple has claimed.
In the six months since its launch, the range has built up a £3m a year market accounting for about 5% of Asda's total beef throughput. It is now set for a March relaunch, said Chris Brown, Asda's agricultural development manager.
Customers had responded positively to the offering, not only by trading up generally, but by demanding more fillets, he told a meeting of the Aberdeen-Angus Club in Oxfordshire.
The breed-branded sausage was also in strong demand and the branding exercise was expected to be extended to Asda's share of the £1bn a year ready meals market.
The increased demand for breed branding was underlined by David Gunner, a director of the Yorkshire-based Dovecote Park meat processing group, a dedicated supplier of Angus, Hereford and organic beef to Waitrose.
Dovecote has direct links with some 700 supplying groups handling about 31,000 head of cattle a year and, in contrast with other meat supply chains, claims to offer a pricing mechanism that ensures healthy premiums with fluctuations ironed out.
"It is an integrated supply chain, which makes good commercial sense. Independent partners run each part as an independent profit centre. There is no cross subsidy each stage of the chain has to profitable," Gunner said.
There was no other beef brand like Aberdeen-Angus, he added, saying it was recognised all over the world. But its integrity had to be protected by quality disciplines throughout the chain. "The higher the price of a product, the greater the expectations," he warned.
Ron McHattie, the society's chief executive, said the society would continue to exercise tight discipline on its brand.
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Asda's switch to Aberdeen-Angus beef for its Extra Special' range has cut customer complaints about quality by 60%, the multiple has claimed.
In the six months since its launch, the range has built up a £3m a year market accounting for about 5% of Asda's total beef throughput. It is now set for a March relaunch, said Chris Brown, Asda's agricultural development manager.
Customers had responded positively to the offering, not only by trading up generally, but by demanding more fillets, he told a meeting of the Aberdeen-Angus Club in Oxfordshire.
The breed-branded sausage was also in strong demand and the branding exercise was expected to be extended to Asda's share of the £1bn a year ready meals market.
The increased demand for breed branding was underlined by David Gunner, a director of the Yorkshire-based Dovecote Park meat processing group, a dedicated supplier of Angus, Hereford and organic beef to Waitrose.
Dovecote has direct links with some 700 supplying groups handling about 31,000 head of cattle a year and, in contrast with other meat supply chains, claims to offer a pricing mechanism that ensures healthy premiums with fluctuations ironed out.
"It is an integrated supply chain, which makes good commercial sense. Independent partners run each part as an independent profit centre. There is no cross subsidy each stage of the chain has to profitable," Gunner said.
There was no other beef brand like Aberdeen-Angus, he added, saying it was recognised all over the world. But its integrity had to be protected by quality disciplines throughout the chain. "The higher the price of a product, the greater the expectations," he warned.
Ron McHattie, the society's chief executive, said the society would continue to exercise tight discipline on its brand.
{{MARKET EDGE }}
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