PnP plays catch-up in convenience foods

The aggressive move by Checkers into the prepared/convenience foods space has taken the market by surprise. After 18 months, it has over 150 new “convenience” products on its shelves, with roughly 100 in development. It expects the range to hit 500 products by year end.

Its biggest push so far has been in children’s meals and snacks, developed by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay and his daughter Matilda. With this range comes salads, sandwiches, “microwave meals” like pastas, soups, prepared veggies, street food and ready-to-bake pizzas. “Ready-tobraai” prepared meats and side dishes have also been launched. Now, PnP is playing catch-up. It entered the category about five years ago, then after a few years withdrew its products. It’s relaunched its offering in recent years and is pushing as hard as Checkers to grow the category.

Consistency of availability remains an issue, with a vastly different experience between its next generation stores, ageing/ underperforming stores and franchise-owned-and-operated stores.

CEO Richard Brasher is “unfazed” by Checkers’ aggressive play, saying “convenience food is a worldwide trend…. The market will grow”.

In its results for the 26 weeks ended August 27, PnP says “convenience foods are a key part of the group’s strategy to grow its private label offering. Products in this range are selected on the basis of taste and innovation.

This is a volume game and not a category that one gets right quickly. Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht said it had upgraded its food technology and development facilities and gone on a hiring spree for food developers and technologists. He said the department had grown 10-fold in a year, without giving more specific details on staff numbers.

Woolworths CEO Ian Moir told FM it has the “technology and product developers and partners or suppliers, in some cases for over 30 years. You don’t establish that overnight, or easily”.

It’s shaping up to be a bruising battle.