‘BRIC’ countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—are big and growing, explains Peter Child, director, leader of Global Retail Practice, McKinsey & Company. In his presentation ‘How half the world shops’, at the recent 2006 CIES Food Business Forum, he highlighted three broad elements of BRIC behavior. One, they enjoy shopping: Forty percent of BRIC shoppers said that shopping was a leisure activity. Two, they have fears connected with food: Thirty percent believed that promotions were designed to sell unsafe products. Thirdly, they demand freshness: Shoppers in Brazil and India shop once a day, while Chinese consumers visit the market twice a day. Key constraints in all the countries are money and access. ‘Struggling’ shoppers will buy only certain foods (e.g. oil and spices in China), checking those prices carefully. As they become ‘consuming’ shoppers, they move towards proteins (e.g. fish and meat in Russia; breads, eggs and meat in China).
(1 July 2008) “What exactly do consumers want?” It would be pure folly to try and tackle this question in the short space of an editor’s note. But this being my precious last column in AFJ, I m...
(1 June 2008) Cyclical market trends and price swings are nothing new. But when the affected sector is as basic to daily survival as food, the implications of a worldwide price spiral can be dev...
(1 June 2008) Thomas Bauer, head of strategic advisory and research for South-east Asia, shares in an exclusive interview with AFJ where the niches lie in Asia’s food production and Rabobank’s a...
(1 April 2008) Scientists at Europe’s food safety watchdog have completed an assessment of a recent study on the effect of two mixtures of certain food colors and the preservative sodium benzoate...
(1 April 2008) The European Food Safety Association says more than half of consumers of plant sterols belong to the intended target group, particularly at sustained levels of intake. Thus more th...
(1 April 2008) More than 50 percent of Americans, ages 18-44, are ready to dine on Singaporean staples like Singapore chili crab, Hainanese chicken rice, and laksa noodles. These finding are base...
(1 April 2008) The confectionery market in Vietnam is on the upwards climb. Datamonitor forecasts that it will be worth $707 million in 2011. By the end of 2011, the sugar-confectionery category ...
(1 April 2008) Frozen-food packaging in the US is expected to soar to $6.4 billion in 2011, due to an increase in demand for convenience foods. Smaller household sizes, an aging population and mo...
While Tesco had previously resisted offering mortgages on the grounds that the margins were so tight that they were unprofitable, finance director Andrew Higginson said that the credit crunch seems to have created an opportunity. Tesco may begin offering home mortgages to compete with the major lenders.
In response to consumer research and the global trend for convenience, South Africa's Pick n Pay has opened its first small format convenience store in Fairland, Johannesburg.
Marks & Spencer has opened its first store in mainland China with hopes that it might lift flagging results. As the flagship store opened on West Nanjing Road, Shanghai’s premier shopping street, the UK retailer reported its worst performance for three years with like-for-like UK sales down by over six per cent over the last three months.
Sorin Minea, chairman of the Romanian Federation of Food Industry Business Owners (Romalimenta) says the food industry is currently overdeveloped in Romania and explains that the weight of current expenses...
US grocers including Whole Foods Market, Kroger and Stop & Shop have had to hire third party verifiers to root out produce that contains pesticide residue despite organic seals. Some supposedly organic producers are certifying conventionally-grown produce in order to increase the price.
Tesco, Britain's biggest retailer, has shown it operates best in tough markets, racking up a 10.3 per cent increase in profit of €1,824 billion for the first six months of 2008 to 23 August. Total sales rose 13.8 per cent to €32.1 billion.
‘BRIC’ countries—Brazil, Russia, India and China—are big and growing, explains Peter Child, director, leader of Global Retail Practice, McKinsey & Company. In his presentation ‘How half the world shops’, at the recent 2006 CIES Food Business Forum, he highlighted three broad elements of BRIC behavior. One, they enjoy shopping: Forty percent of BRIC shoppers said that shopping was a leisure activity. Two, they have fears connected with food: Thirty percent believed that promotions were designed to sell unsafe products. Thirdly, they demand freshness: Shoppers in Brazil and India shop once a day, while Chinese consumers visit the market twice a day. Key constraints in all the countries are money and access. ‘Struggling’ shoppers will buy only certain foods (e.g. oil and spices in China), checking those prices carefully. As they become ‘consuming’ shoppers, they move towards proteins (e.g. fish and meat in Russia; breads, eggs and meat in China).
