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South Africans want to buy fresh, healthy food, but they don’t want to peel their own veggies any more, grocery shops say.
Shoprite now sells as much convenience food in a day as it did in a month a year ago, said Arno Abeln, manager of the fresh produce division of the group.
Convenience food refers to dishes that can be prepared in the oven or microwave in a few minutes.
According to the market research company Euromonitor, Shoprite was number three in the market for preferred meals. Shoprite’s market share was 9%. Woolworths was in first place with 36% and Pick n Pay was second with 18%.
Euromonitor’s latest figures shows sales in this category increased by 8% to R3.7 billion in 2016 and they expect it to grow even more.
In the meantime, Pick n Pay and Woolworths are preparing themselves to defend their position.
Both said that the demand for convenience food in their shops was also increasing.
Susie Squire, group head of communication at Woolworths, said people were increasingly asking for food that was easy to prepare. “But we’re also seeing an increase in the demand for healthy food,” she said.
David North, group head of strategy and corporate affairs at Pick n Pay, also said the group’s sale of convenience meals was increasing and that they were planning on putting more options on the shelves.
Pieter Engelbrecht, chief executive of Shoprite, said a greater focus on “fresh convenience” was one of the big changes they made over the past year, and which they planned to build on.
Abeln said people measured the quality of a shop according to the quality of its fresh produce.
Convenience meals are perceived as fresh because they do not get frozen.
“Fresh is the future,” said Abeln.
Three years ago they began expanding their offering after they saw “another shop” achieving success with it.
“We said we can also do that, and we can do it better.”
They started with things that were easy to make, like pizza, pasta, soup and sandwiches.
The group watches restaurant trends locally and in Europe and then make new products based on the trends.
That’s why they also have Mexican food on their shelves these days. They are now developing the kind of food one usually buys at so-called “pop-up” restaurants at festivals.
Engelbrecht says that over the past year people have “voted with their wallets”.
