The Grocer – 17 August 2019

focus on... roast dinners

PB | The Grocer | 17 August 2019 Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk Get the full story at thegrocer.co.uk 17 August 2019 | The Grocer | 39

40 Premium roasties

Consumers are buying into more

premium offerings that make their

roasts feel homemade

41 Chicken dominates

Chicken is the most popular

protein for a roast, while all

others are seeing a decline

40 Health credentials

Enjoyment is the top motivator

behind the roast – but health is

growing in importance

No compromise

Convenience no longer means second best. Consumers are

demanding quick products that taste as good as home-cooked

evidenced by a 6% rise in scratch cooking

occasions [Kantar]. But if they can take a few

shortcuts here and there – crucially, shortcuts

that don’t take away from the roast experi-

ence – all the better.

That’s giving rise to a new generation

of premium products. From duck fat roast

potatoes to gastropub-style giant Yorkshire

puddings, they promise all the convenience

without the compromise. And that’s pre-

senting fresh opportunities for growth in the

declining roast market.

I

f there’s one meal worth taking

time over, it’s the roast. According

to AHDB, Brits will spend an aver-

age of 52 minutes chopping, sea-

soning and cooking to get the perfect meat,

veg and gravy combo. For a nation that’s

addicted to microwave dinners – 72 million

kilograms of ready meals were sold last year,

according to Kantar – it’s not bad going.

Still, it’s a long way from the days when the

whole of Sunday morning was spent metic-

ulously prepping a hearty meal. As Aunt

Bessie’s head of marketing Sam Dolan puts

it: “Nobody wants to spend three hours at a

stove any more for the family to demolish it

in an hour.”

Instead, Dolan sees today’s mantra

as “medium effort, maximum reward”.

Essentially, Brits are willing to cook, as

Emma Weinbren The consumer mindset is key to this trend.

Because roast dinners are still seen as some-

thing a little bit special. Yes, their frequency

is steadily declining. Last year saw the num-

ber of occasions fall 2.9% to 1,232.6 million

[Kantar 52 w/e 24 March 2019]. Still, the roast

is the third most popular dish in Britain,

ahead of national favourites such as soup,

Indian and Chinese food. And half of con-

sumers strongly considered a roast dinner

one of their favourite meals in a poll of over

1,400 people by Streetbees.

Its enduring appeal is an emotional one.

The notion of ‘together time’ drove 19% of

occasions last year, according to Kantar data.

Despite – or perhaps because of – the hec-

tic nature of modern life, that is becoming

increasingly important. Last year, there were

632 million more ‘together time’ occasions

than there were in 2015.

McCain category controller Naomi

“The notion of getting

together is important –

there’s a lot of nostalgia

around the roast”