Fresh pasta market in strong growth
Despite difficult conditions, the UK fresh pasta market has witnessed impressive growth due to new consumers entering the market, according to a major European manufacturer.
“If you look at the 52 weeks to June 15, the value of the fresh pasta market has gone up 11.6% to £105M after the previous year, which was flat,” said Italian pasta firm Rana Group’s brand development director Stephen Hull. Volume growth has been even greater: 12.1% to 29,400t year-on-year (y-o-y).
As wheat is a key component in pasta, the product has been affected by price rises. “We respond to the market accordingly,” said Hull. “We have increased some costs and increased efficiencies.”
But Brits are still buying into the market. Rana Group claimed that its latest UK advertising initiative had had a colossal impact on the uptake of filled pasta. “Total filled and unfilled pasta penetration is 40%, up 7.3% versus the same period the previous year and growth is coming from new consumers,” he said. “Filled pasta is 70% of the fresh pasta category and you can see a direct increase [in penetration] from when we started our £2.5M advertising campaign in September,” he said. “I think market value will continue to grow over the coming year.”
The company is still performing well, with 14.7% turnover growth y-o-y in Great Britain and it plans to launch a new range of pasta products in the first quarter of 2009.
