Christmas 2024: A great year for British gammon
As forecasted in the Christmas predictions article, 23 December proved to be the most popular grocery shopping day with sales 30% higher than any other day in 2024. Growth of premium own-label lines increased 14.6%, showing consumers are willing to pay a bit more for a treat, and online grocery spending reached a record £1.6bn, reaching 5.6m households this Christmas (Kantar 4w/e 29 December 2024).
Total Meat, fish and poultry (MFP) volumes remained flat versus Christmas 2023 but remained at an elevated level of +2.0% versus Christmas 2022. Whole chicken and whole turkey fared well, with +2.3% and +2.4% year-on-year volume growth, boosted by an increase in promotions versus last Christmas. In contrast, beef, lamb and pork Christmas joints saw a decrease in promotions versus last Christmas, which contributed to a decline in volumes sold this year (Kantar 4 w/e 29 December 2024). The impact of promotions will be explained in more depth following further investigation.
Despite the drop in promotion this Christmas, lamb roasting joints continued to show a stronger performance than we have seen in the past, echoing the good performance for lamb as a whole across 2024 (4.3% volume growth Kantar 52 w/e 29 December 2024).
For beef, although we see a decline in roasting joint volumes, total primary beef volumes grew 1.8% year-on-year, driven by good performance for beef mince (+5.0%), beef steak (+3.2%) and diced beef (+6.1%). Total processed beef also performed well with a 2.3% increase in volume year-on-year, driven by burgers (+9.4%) (Kantar 4 w/e 29 December 2024). These results suggest that beef offerings were key to consumer meal repertoires in the run-up to Christmas delivering on both enjoyment and value for money.
Within pig meat, gammon roasting joints are the star of the show, with a +1.4% volume increase year-on year (Kantar 4 w/e 29 December 2024). Volumes of gammon roasting joints sold during December represent 24.4% of all gammon roasting joint volumes sold during 2024, demonstrating the importance of this offering to the Christmas festivities.
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