The budget was expected to be lower and the sales figures confirm this trend towards sobriety ahead of the end-of-year holidays. According to NielsenIQ, for the second year in a row, the holiday season was not a celebration of holiday products.
In the last two months of the year, the sales volume of festive food products (sparkling wine, smoked fish, foie gras, festive cakes, chestnut cream, chocolates, etc.) fell by 1.4%. If all these departments saw their turnover increase by 4.7%, it is only thanks to the increase in product prices.
NielsenIQ, however, sees notable differences by population category. Regarding the age of the consumers, for example, they all reduced the number of products purchased (-5% among people aged 35 to 49, for example), with the notable exception of older people who consumed more. Those over 65 years of age bought 2.3% more products than the previous year.
Perhaps less limited in their purchasing power than workers, retirees were able to cover a greater proportion of the costs of Christmas meals.
A confirmed step towards luxury
Another confirmation: If consumers bought fewer products, they were also looking for cheaper substitutes for traditional holiday foods. Thus, sales of champagne fell by 14.2% during the season, while sales of sparkling wine increased by 4.6%. Chocolate (+4.6%) was preferred to more expensive seasonal chocolates (-2.1%) and smoked trout (+11%) has largely replaced salmon (-6.7%) in the tables.
A downward movement that was also reflected in the choice of brands. After favoring private brands all year, consumers did not “let go” at Christmas. In the case of chocolates, private label sales increased by 6.7% in volume (compared to a drop of 3.5% for brands). The same goes for pâté (+5.9% for white brands, -6.9% for brands) and smoked trout (+16.7% for white brands, +5% for brands).
This bad luck for brands in favor of private labels until the end of the year makes some distributors hope that commercial negotiations will favor them.
Source: BFM TV
