IRI Hellas: Recalls brought another half a billion euros to organized retail

Friday, February 24, 2023

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Another 501m euros appear to have grown into organized retail through sales of fast consumption products (FMCGs) in 2022, according to the Market View research of IRI Greece. For 2022, the total value of sales is set at € 8.56 billion versus € 8.06 billion of 2021. Of the total sales of 2022, € 2.03 million relate to weighing products, food by 100%, in a sum-record in the history of organized retail. The weighing products are recovering in the post-pandemic period and for their percentages at absolute sales price, reaching 23.7%. The remaining 76.3% of sales concerns barcode products (packaged, with fixed barcode). Turnover for packaged products exceeded € 6.53 billion for 2022, up 5.82% compared to 2021 (€ 6.17 billion).

The biggest price and sales value increases - What are the exceptions, what are the ’stable papers’

The weighing products showed sales increase, with the exception of fish and cold cuts. The largest share was maintained by dairy products and cheeses (28.5%), with a sales increase by 12.4%, and high ratings on cutting cheeses. Fruits and vegetables follow, with 24.9% and sales value increased by 1.3%. The highest percentage increase in sales value was chicken, with 18% and the largest decrease in fish, with 7.7%. Cold cuts decreased by 1.2% compared to 2021 in sales value, but in general the much greater tendency to decline in the category, which had fallen by 6.6% in 2021, compared to 2020.

Food ingredients, auxiliary goods and ingredients around cooking, usually processed foods, have showed the highest price increase in Greek organized retail, according to IRI Greece, among all food and drink products: It is about a 12% increase, with an average price now € 1.81. However, they reported a sales decrease by 0.4%, despite the highest increase in sales value, by 11.5%, among the food categories, due to the highest price. The price of dairy products followed by 11.9% (average: € 2.14), with a 7% sales increase but a significant volume reduction of 4.3%. The frozen raised their price by 7.9% (average: € 3.27) with a 2.6% sales increase and a 4.9% volume decrease and packaged meals by 6.3% respectively, with average price € 1.89, sales value increased by 7.6% and sales volume by 1.2%.

In the whole of 2022, a 5.8% increase in sales value was observed in organized retail products, with a parallel increase in average price of 6.8% but a decrease in volume, by 0.9%. Especially for the month of December 2022, which also included Christmas and New Year shopping, the monthly turnover increase in FMCGs reached 13.1% compared to the previous month.

Only four months in the last three years have moved higher than their immediate predecessor: March 2020 (+25.1%), April 2020 (+14.1%), October 2021 (+19.9%) and December 2021. Except for December 2021, the other three months involved government announcements of lockdowns to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

In convenient stores and in the food categories, the turnover – record-growth for the sales value of weighing products

At the supermarket level, small supermarkets and convenient stores saw the greatest growth in 2022, with a turnover increase of 11.6% in stores up to 400 sq.m. Hypermarkets of more than 2,500 sq.m followed, with an increase of 7.9%, then supermarkets of 400 to 1,000 sq.m (+5.3%) and lastly medium to large supermarkets, from 1,000 to 2,500 sq.m., with turnover growth of 3.6%. Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) saw an average price increase of 6.8% in 2022 compared to 2021, with an average product price of € 2.06. The increase was the same in food (+6.8%) compared to 2021, with the corresponding average price now standing at € 1.92.

Among FMCGs product sales throughout 2022 in organized retail, food as a whole accounted for 81.2% of total sales, which breaks down to 57.5% for fixed barcode products and 23.7% for weighing products.

Sales value growth in barcode products averaged 6.5% for the past year, while on-scale products saw a record 7.5% increase in sales value, following a slight decline in 0.3% in 2021.

According to market data from IRI Hellas, private label products grew by 16.4% in 2022 as a whole and now hold a 16.3% share of the total organized retail market, catching up to the percentages of 2016 and 2017.

Source: Food Reporter #0886/2023-02-06