Last week, the retail price on 170g punnets moved to $2, and we saw a 40% increase in punnets sold compared to the week prior. From week ending 26/9/23 to 10/10/23, we saw the number of punnets of 170g sold was flat despite retail price shifting down from $2.70 to
$2.50, demand was slow to pick up, and the shift to a sharper price point of $2 has moved punnets in line with $2 price point on 125g pack size in October 2021 in NSW.
Consumer purchasing is tied to the punnet rather than the value of the larger package. There may be some work to do in educating consumers on the larger pack size and the better value it presents; some shoppers may not have been aware of the pack size change given a very similar footprint for the 125g and 170g punnet.
If the industry had not transitioned to 170g in NSW and packed it into 125g punnet, this would’ve required selling 23% more than the top sales week on record (w/e 20/10/19) and untested waters regarding price points to move this volume.
We have monitored customer purchasing behaviour using the IRI panel data that tracks loyalty cards and also tags customers who pay with the same credit/debit cards and found an increase in the number of punnets per shopping trip to 1.6 punnets, up from 1.5 punnets at the same time last year. Whilst 0.1 of a punnet is small, when you multiply this by the number of households that are buying, this translates into a large number. It is good to see some shift in the number of punnets consumers buy in response to the value offered.
