July 2015
Sector Analysis: The Food Sector The development in the food sector indicates a great market potential for products to busy and conscious consumers Grocery Retailing The food sector in the UK has been constantly expanding during the last decade. Busy lifestyles, smaller households, and a rise in working households have increased the consumption of convenience foods as ready meals, snack-foods, and pre-packaged ingredients. The need for convenience has also led to an increase in online shopping. The retailers respond to this has been to cut back on investments in large megastores in favour of expanding their online warehouse space. UK is facing a growing obesity crisis which has stimulated a demand for heathier foods. To meet this demand, brands and the supermarkets own brands have extended their product ranges to include low-fat, low-salted and lighter options. Consumers have growing concerns regarding product origin and manufacturing processes after the horsemeat scandal that fuelled the demand for organic foods. Consequently, consumers are increasingly seeking out local, specialist, and online outlets that offer a wider range of organic produce. The Royal Danish Embassy, London 2 / 5
UK s Grocery Market by Supermarket Share (%), 2014 Market Trends The UK grocery market was 174.5bn in 2014 and is estimated to be worth around 200bn by 2020 Private labels account for over 50% of total UK grocery sales and is considered good value for money Discount grocery stores, such as Aldi and Lidl, have continuously gained market share since the recession The Internet grocery sales has experienced double-digit growth over the last years and is expected to continuously grow especially driven by m-commerce Tablet-based retail m-commerce sales is expected to more than double from 2015 to reach a level of 20.96 in 2018 Grocery sales is increasingly expected to go through the hot three online sales, local convenience stores and discount supermarkets such as Lidl and Aldi Areas of Growth The UK snack foods market has had a strong yearly growth and is now estimated to worth of 3bn Fairtrade has become a more established trend, and supermarkets have expanded their offers for ethical buying Key Note forecasts the market value of ready meals to increase by 15.4% between 2014 and 2018 The number of vegetarians in the UK is estimated to have doubled to around 5.76 million people in 2014 since 2010 The Royal Danish Embassy, London 3 / 5
Fast facts Meat is Denmark s largest export good to the UK within the food sector with exports worth near DKK 4.5bn in 2014 The UK foodservice had a value of 40.6bn in 2014 and expected to reach a value of 56.3 by 2019 Online sales will between 2015 and 2020 increase by 92.9% to 17.2bn and will therefore be the fastest growing channel over the next five years Over the next five years, the discount channel sales will increase by 10.5bn Sales of organic food and drink products increased by 4% in 2014 to 1.86 Tesco is the grocery market leader with a market share of 28.8% in 2014 The UK is one of the world s leading Fairtrade markets with sales of 1.67 in 2014 Ready to explore the UK food market? The Danish Embassy in London has many years of experience in helping Danish companies establish and expand sales in the UK within the healthcare and life sciences market. To find out how we can help your company in the UK, please contact Carina Simonsen via email at carsim@um.dk or call on +44 (0)20 7333 0223. For more information about the market opportunities in the UK visit www.storbritannien.um.dk The Royal Danish Embassy, London 4 / 5
The Trade Council is a part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is the official export and investment promotion agency of Denmark. The Trade Council benefits from around ninety Danish Embassies, Consulates General and Trade Commissions abroad. The Trade Council advises and assists Danish companies in their export activities and internationalisation process according to the vision: Creating Value All the Way. The work in the Trade Council follows specific procedures and quality guidelines. In this way our customers are secured the best possible quality under the varying working and market conditions at any given point of time. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark Royal Danish Embassy 55 Sloane Street London SW1X 9SR +44 (0)20 7333 0200 lonamb@um.dk www.denmark.org.uk