Change Brings Opportunity - Go For It!

摘要

In 1954, meat came "off ration" and the nation gave a carnivorous sigh of relief. In 1994, self-imposed rationing was pervasive as consumers dieted, desperately striving to look better and live longer! Over this forty year period much has changed in the European food industry and the major impetus for change has been the increasingly sophisticated demands placed on the industry by food consumers. Some key consumer trends include: - slow or no population growth - our customer base is static. If we want to increase our sales, we must take them away from someone else; - growing real income for most of us, although, not for the significant number who are on state fixed-incomes (e.g. OAPs, some single parent families) - when shopping, some of us are solely price-driven and head for the discount stores, others want choice, quality and the "one-stop shop" convenience of the superstore; - an increasing willingness for consumers to "buy time" - as more and more women work outside the home, the demand for convenience foods rises inexorably and the lion's share of product value is added past the farm-gate; - in an overall static market for food, the major growth component is in food consumed "away from home" (one-third of all expenditure on food and increasing); - a better educated consumer is concerned about health, nutrition, food safety, animal welfare and environmental issues. How and where was the food produced and by whom? Consumers seek comfort in "passport" food products; - the composition of households is changing - the 2+2 nuclear family represents only 20 percent of all households, 60 percent are two persons or less (and they don't want a whole leg of lamb or a 1kg cauliflower); - and there is growing interest in meals and ingredients from around the world and consumers show no respect for farming seasons ("but, I want strawberries now!").