Organic fruit juice sales are plummeting as consumers switch to cheaper standard ranges, according to David Patmore, recently appointed md of organic juice processor Grove Fresh.
“According to ACNielsen, in the year to the end of November 2008 in the grocery retail market, organic fruit juices were worth over £16M, down 25% in value and slightly less in volume,” said Patmore. “On certain core lines there’s an even lower rate of sale.”
Patmore said retailers were paring back organic juice ranges to focus on products with lower price points. “We are in a year of consolidation. You will probably see just Grove Fresh and own-label.”
He said Grove Fresh was not immune to range reduction. “We are trying to find additional cost savings that will enable us to compete. We’re working with co-packers and suppliers on this and we’re going to have to look at consolidation in the UK.”
The company said it was in the process of withdrawing its smoothie range, launched early last year, from the UK market due to poor rates of sale.
“We’re looking at the performance of every line in the range and deciding if it needs to be there. Once we’ve done that we can start to think of brand extension or expansion.”
Patmore denied that the market for organic food would disappear, saying shoppers who weren’t truly loyal to the concept would fall away to leave a committed select group. “There have been consumers in the past five years who have bought into the idea, then compromised and gone for lower-priced items. But the information I have is that there is still strong demand from core organic consumers.”
He said future opportunities would lie in traditional core juices, such as orange, apple or grapefruit, rather than more exotic varieties for which ingredients were harder to source.