The Grocer – 10 August 2019

focus on... rice & noodles

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My Risotto Perfetto

Tilda Fragrant Jasmine Rice

Sharwood’s Curry Rice Pots

Riso Gallo has axed its Pronto brand of convenient risotto

products and replaced it with My Risotto Perfetto, a range

that comprises Curry, Porcini Mushroom, Sa ron, Four

Cheese and Asparagus variants (rsp: £2.45). The curry

 avour rolled into Co-op, Nisa and Petty Wood in July, with

further listings on the cards.

This is one of four ready-to-heat launches (rsp: £1.59) from

Tilda. Designed to tap growing demand for southeast

Asian cuisine, the product is an authentic, fragrant sticky

rice that partners well with curries, according to Tilda.

Other launches from the brand include a premium US long

grain variant and a vegetable paella product for kids.

Premier Foods reckons Indian cuisine has been overlooked

in the instant pot meals sector (notwithstanding Pot

Noodle’s Bombay Badboy, of course). So it’s launched a trio

of Sharwood’s curry rice pots: Chicken Tikka, Korma and

Jalfrezi (rsp: £1.49). The launch will be supported with £1

deals, alongside online and in-store marketing.

Launched: July 2019

Manufacturer: Riso Gallo

Launched: June 2019

Manufacturer: Tilda

Launched: July 2019

Manufacturer: Premier Foods

Thai Jasmine Rice

Launched: July 2019 Manufacturer: Royal Umbrella

This isn’t any old rice. This fragrant jasmine rice has been crowned ‘the world’s best’

according to manufacturer Royal Umbrella. The variety of rice is known as Thai

hom mali, which is subject to DNA testing to ensure its provenance and quality. The

quality promise means it doesn’t come particularly cheap, at £2.80 for a 1kg bag. But

as demand for authentic world cuisine rises, Royal Umbrella is expecting strong sales

for the new line, which launched into Tesco in July.

contrast, second best-selling brand Tilda

shed a whopping 2.3 million units as prices

increased 1.2% [Nielsen]. In plain rice, Kantar

points to Laila as a particularly fast-growing

brand with a 32.1% value increase. That it’s

signi cantly cheaper than rival Tilda can’t

have hurt.

This price sensitivity is re ected in the

ongoing growth of own label. Across the rice

and noodle market, it grew 7.7% to be worth

£258.5m. Meanwhile, branded edged up just

0.7% to £313.1m.

That trend is particularly evident in pouch

rice, where own-label lines have enjoyed

value growth of 14.5% while branded has

fallen 6.3%. A look at the average prices tells

the story. Branded pouches weigh in at £3.93

per kilogram, while own-label variants come

at £2.24. That’s a di erence of £1.69.

For that reason, Kantar analyst Bianca

Draghici can’t see the rise of own label stop-

ping anytime soon. “As the quality and vari-

ety of own-label ranges continue to improve,

brands will struggle even more to justify their

premium prices,” she says. “Own-label pouch

shopper numbers are up 8.1% and shoppers

are purchasing more o en, a rise of 6.6%.”

Falling promotions

Given all this price-driven switching, you

might expect brands to be promoting more.

Not so. Across rice and noodles as a whole,

sales on promotion have fallen 6.2%, driven

by a sharp decline in volume deals. That’s

partly down to the growth of own label, which

tends not to run promotions. But brands such

as Tilda are also actively moving away from

trading on price credentials. “The percent-

age of volume sold on promotion on ready-

to-heat rice has declined from 57% two years

ago to 45%, ” says Beheshti at Tilda, quoting

IRI  gures.

“While the growth of own label has pushed

prices down and some brands have resorted

to heavy price promotions to help drive vol-

ume, we have shi ed our strategy to focus on

building the brand and bringing new shop-

pers to the categories in which it operates,”

she explains.

Still, even in this brand-building strat-

egy, there remains a place for promotions.

At the time of writing, Tilda 250g pouches of

Basmati and Basmati Pilau were on a £1 deal

in Tesco, down from £1.59. Many Uncle Ben’s

250g  avoured pouches were selling for

“ As the quality and

variety of own label

continues to improve,

brands will struggle”