The food retail industry’s focus on price is failing to target up to 50 per cent of consumers who are looking for more than just low-cost shopping, a study has claimed.
The IGD figures revealed around 50 per cent of shoppers are foodies, looking to shop by taste and experience and not necessarily price, said Joanne Denny-Finch, chief executive of the grocery think-tank.
The news follows on from claims by Asda boss Andy Bond, at the IGD conference last week, that the food industry had lost its flair and grocery shopping had become “boring”.
“Food retailing has become lowest common denominator stuff. It’s lost its bottle,” Bond (pictured) said.
He attacked the industry for failing to innovate to meet customers needs. “They want flair and they’re not getting it. Instead they’re getting bland, amorphous sameness.”
Suppliers were criticised for failing to distinguish between their supermarket customers. “We always thought if we were good to our suppliers, they’d be good to us... but it doesn’t seem to be working lately. It seems to me suppliers simply don’t dare to establish points of difference between the supermarkets anymore.”
He urged suppliers to start thinking about flair rather than fear: “Let’s re-establish the points of difference between Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda. None of us retailers can do it on our own, we need to work with our suppliers to make it happen.”
Denney-Finch welcomed Bond’s comments as balanced: “On one hand he was very challenging to the suppliers, but also of his own people as well.” She agreed that innovation within the sector is slow: “Frankly it takes too long, and if we’re going to make the food proposition exciting, we need to drive innovation hard.”
Retailers and suppliers need to start thinking about the premium market, she said: “There’s an enormous opportunity for everyone to do a much better job at the top end. This is not a niche.” She pointed to a recent McKinsey study, which backed up the IGD figures. It claimed 31 per cent of shoppers are purely premium, 10 per cent are looking for quick quality while 17 per cent are very demanding.
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