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Today's News |
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| Lashings Of Health & Spice Heats Up Sauce Market |
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 New product activity is heating up in the large and diverse prepared sauces market, which covers a wide range of different product types, including pasta sauces, cooking sauces, bottled and table sauces and condiments, and salad sauces and dressings.
Innova Market Insights has recorded consistently rising numbers of launches globally over the past five years or so, probably reflecting the increasing variety of meals and cuisines now being discovered by consumers.
“Increasing interest in foreign cuisines has been particularly significant for the cooking sauces category, which alone accounted for half of tracked global sauces launches in 2011, well ahead of bottled table sauces with over a quarter and mayonnaise and dressings with about a fifth,” says Lu Ann Williams, Research Manager at Innova Market Insights.
Despite the strong convenience image of the sauces market, Williams notes that there has been ongoing interest in health in evidence. Nearly 45% of 2011 global launches recorded by Innova Market Insights feature health claims of some kind, rising to over 50% for salad sauces and dressings, compared with 45% for cooking sauces and 38% for table sauces.
The sector has also taken interest in clean-label products on board, with 2011 launches featuring “natural” recipes and “no additives/preservatives” one of the key areas for product positioning, used by nearly 30% of total sector introductions.
The table and cooking sauces markets are both dominated by tomato-based products and are also seeing moves to spicier and more complex flavorings. The table sauces market has started to see more in the way of limited edition products with more unusual flavors, or to feature premium ingredients, such as balsamic vinegar, or to use a particular type of tomato.
The range of barbecue sauces is also growing in many markets, with new variants typically introduced for the summer season, but all-year-round use also promoted.
Increasing use of unusual ingredients has already been in evidence for 2012, including wasabi and tequila, following on from 2011 launches featuring flavorings such as raspberry vodka, bourbon whiskey and blackberries.
The move to spicier flavors has also been in evidence in the cooking sauces market. A greater variety of pack formats, including single-serve products for smaller households, as well as sachets and pouches in place of the more traditional glass jars, has also been reported in this sector. |
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| Item last updated: Wednesday April 18 2012 10:19 |
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| Grocery Market Growth Fuelled By Food Inflation |
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The latest grocery share figures from Kantar Worldpanel for the 12 weeks ending 15 April 2012, show the market growing at 5.0%.
This is the highest level of growth since January 2010 but is mainly fuelled by food price inflation rather than real volume increases.
Edward Garner, director at Kantar Worldpanel, explains: “The discounters and Waitrose are outperforming the middle ground as shoppers polarise their spend. To this effect, Aldi and Lidl continue their strong run and both achieve record shares this period. Iceland’s growth rate of 9.1% is also racing ahead of the market – further proof that consumers are convinced by strong value-for-money messages.
“Waitrose sees no slowdown in its growth as some households refuse to let economic pressures affect their food purchasing. This may also be a result of cutbacks on eating out which have meant that some shoppers are willing to spend more money on bringing the dining out experience into the home. The continued growth of premium own-labels, particularly Tesco Finest and Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference, is further evidence of this behaviour.”
Among the big four, Asda has the strongest growth which includes the benefit of its Netto conversions. This is followed by Sainsbury’s with growth just ahead of the market at 5.4%. Both Tesco and Morrisons lag behind the market and their shares drop by 0.2 points compared with last year. However, in the case of Tesco, this is less than the declines seen earlier this year.
Grocery inflation stands at 5.5%* for the 12 week period ending 15 April 2012. This is unchanged from the two previous reports. This remains above the market growth of 5.0% this period and means that households are still trying to rein in grocery spending by managing down their ‘personal inflation’
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| Item last updated: Wednesday April 18 2012 10:19 |
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| Pros And Cons Of Using Temporary Agency Workers |
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Using temporary agency workers (TAW) improves firm performance, but at the cost of permanent employees' wellbeing, according to a new study by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.
Profitability is higher in workplaces using TAW and those using TAW experienced greater improvements in their performance than "like" workplaces that did not use temporary agency workers.
However, the presence of TAW at the workplace is associated with lower job satisfaction and higher job anxiety among permanent employees at the workplace. The effect is not driven by the presence of TAW in the employee's occupation, as might be expected if employees were primarily concerned about a threat to their jobs arising from substitution by TAW. Instead, it is the presence of any TAW at the workplace that matters. One possible interpretation of these results is that workplace regimes which harbour any TAW are more labour intensive and perhaps more cost conscious that workplace regimes which do not resort to TAW.
Temporary agency workers also affect the wages employers pay to their permanent employees. Permanent employees suffer a 5 per cent wage penalty when TAW work alongside them in their occupation. This suggests TAW may exert downward wage pressure on the wages paid to employees in that occupation, resulting in cost savings for the employer. However, across the workplace as a whole permanent employees receive a wage premium of around 9 percent when the employer uses TAW. This may indicate employers share some of the increased profitability accruing through TAW with their permanent employees.
Alex Bryson, the author, says: "Temporary agency workers are increasingly common in the UK and in other countries like Germany. The study suggests that one reason for their use is that they help firms improve their performance. But employers face a dilemma. TAW seem to have an adverse effect on employees' experiences at work, perhaps due a more labour intensive regime, one which is only partly compensated for with higher wages." |
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| Item last updated: Wednesday April 18 2012 10:19 |
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