The recent announcement from Tesco that it has extended its prepared produce range underlined what the industry has known for a little while now: prepared is a category on the up. The retailer reported that sales of its prepared fruit and veg lines had rocketed in the past two years, with melon and mango fingers shooting up 400 per cent. This mirrors an upward trend across the prepared fruit category, which has seen value sales rise 12 per cent in the 52 weeks to 16 July according to Kantar.
“In these challenging market conditions there are a number of categories out there that aren’t enjoying this kind of growth,” says PrepWorld’s head of sales Christian Thomas, “but prepared fruit, and the prepared category in its totality, is bucking that trend.” There are a number of reasons for this, he believes, notably the health benefits, convenience and high quality now offered by prepared products.
Simon Derrick, head of brand and communications at Blue Skies, also claims there has been a shift in demand from processed to pre-prep as health consciousness rises and people become more aware of their food choices. In a similar vein, transparency has become more important to consumers, Derrick believes, noting that “consumers are demanding more information than ever before on where products come from, what’s in them and their health attributes.”
A further catalyst for growth in the category has been the addition of several new fruits – particularly exotics – to retailers’ prepared aisles over the past 12-18 months. “We have seen a few fruits beginning to gain traction recently,” says Derrick. “Sharon fruit is gaining in popularity and has a great visual appeal. Papaya is also doing very well in wholehead and we’re seeing increasing demand to translate this trend to the prepared fruit sector.” In processed fruit, meanwhile, passionfuit is the ‘in flavour’ this year, according to Phil Acock, managing director of Kent processor Fourayes, which has started to use the fruit in jams, curds and sauces.
When it comes to the more established drivers of growth, Thomas says there are four key fruits leading the category: pomegranate, mango, berries and watermelon, the last of which has been the most successful new product in fresh-cut fruit in the past two years. The way watermelon is prepared has been key to the product’s growth, with much of the product sold in finger form. While watermelon fingers appeal to a wide demographic, they have proved particularly popular with families, Thomas says. “It’s quite an easy product for mums to give to kids,” he explains. “There’s no mess, children can easily hold the watermelon in their hands, and because there’s usually no peel attached, there’s very little waste.”
Another area of the category that has performed well in the past year is seasonal ranging, with retailers typically bringing in new fruits for a ten to 12-week window depending on availability. British berries have performed well in this regard, and retailers are “getting quite good at having the seasonal products in differentiated pots”, Thomas says.
Making products stand out on the fixture by emphasising their provenance and seasonality is helping increase sales, he thinks, adding that prepared fruit generally is a “gateway” for consumers to taste new products. “Customers are prepared to lay out £2 to try some figs or persimmon or whatever,” he explains. “It may be because there’s only a few bits in a pot rather than having to buy a whole punnet.”
Alongside this tendency for consumers to try out new fruits, there has also been a move towards larger bowls as demand for sharing sizes grows. “One of the things we’ve seen this year is a trend towards people wanting a slightly bigger bowl for eating at home or a bit of entertaining maybe.” But he concedes that there hasn’t been much in the way of “groundbreaking innovation in packs and formats” in the 12 months.
