Duck specialist Gressingham Foods has launched its first sub-brand, featuring premium lines of added value fresh duck under the ‘Bistro by Gressingham’ label.
Prepared sous-vide duck with honey & hoisin sauce and duck with orange & maple sauce are the first products in the range, with Gressingham looking to grow the lineup to include a guinea fowl product before the end of the year.
Other products in Gressingham’s core range are also set to transition to the Bistro label, including duck a l’orange, duck legs in plum sauce and confit duck.
Bistro commands a higher price tag (rsp: £5-£6) than Gressingham’s standard range, with confirmed stockists including Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons, while initial rollout into 200 Waitrose stores began last week.
The Bistro brand’s launch comes as part of an “ambitious” expansion plan for the brand, Gressingham said. It is aiming to encourage 750,000 new households into the duck market during the next three years following research which showed some 71% of those who did not cook duck at home had enjoyed it elsewhere.
It follows two years of falling retail sales for fresh duck, slipping by almost £4.4m between 2017 and 2018 to £32.6m, while volume fell by more than 900 tonnes [Kantar Worldpanel, w/e 25 March 2018].
Ease of preparation and convenience would be key selling points in a market “ripe for growth”, said Gressingham joint MD William Buchanan. Both new products were designed for two people and cooked in 30-40 minutes, making them ideal for the weekend treat-seeking market, he added.
“We know consumers enjoy duck products but for some, there is still some apprehension about cooking from scratch. We are constantly innovating and evolving our range to tackle these barriers, and our new Bistro range is a significant move to attract new shoppers to the category with occasion-led restaurant quality dishes,” said Buchanan.
“With the unique position of being a well-known name in the fresh meat aisle, our ambition is that Bistro by Gressingham will drive a sizable uplift in households enjoying duck at home and continue the growth the brand has enjoyed over the past five years.”
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