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FINE FOOD FROM PAGE 37 So, what exactly is classified as fine food? Is it simply anything promoted as ‘gourmet’ or ‘premium’? “I think \[fine food\] is being redefined by millennials as products that meet their values and needs – that meet attributes such as delicious taste, functionality, provenance and sustainability, and that are ethically sourced and produced,” Tucker’s Natural Managing Director Sam Tucker said. YES, PLEASE TO SPECIALTY CHEESE Sales in the entertaining cheese sector have been “relatively stable” in volume terms (up 0.5 per cent) and up in value by 6.5 per cent (IRI Scan data YTD to 28/6/20, supplied by Somerdale International). “Unsurprisingly, the Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted sales, particularly in April and over the important Easter period, where all segments declined versus last year,” Ms Jones said. She adds that the easing of lockdowns in most of Australia has brought an encouragingly positive uplift in consumption, with sales in both volume and value terms bouncing back strongly. Best of British cheese Somerdale International exports “great tasting” British cheeses to Australia and some 40 other countries, Ms Jones says, pointing to its long established partnerships with many of the “highest quality” cheese producers in the UK. These partnerships, she adds, allow Somerdale to offer a comprehensive range of award-winning, traditional, “quintessentially British” cheeses. “At the same time, we work closely with our supply partners to develop new cheeses, brands and packaging formats to meet the diverse requirements of the international marketplace,” Ms Jones said. “Somerdale has been supplying British cheese to the Australian retail and foodservice sectors for more than 30 years, working closely with Mayers Fine Food to enhance their comprehensive range of specialty cheeses. In 2012, our partnership with Mayers Fine Food was reinforced by Somerdale establishing a permanent office in Australia. “Today we ship, on a regular basis, containers full of a growing selection of high quality and great tasting British cheeses to Sydney, which are then distributed through the Mayers supply chain to a broad range of Australian retail customers, including mainstream retailers such as Woolworths, Coles, ALDI and Costco, through to high-end specialist delis.” Building the category Considering the fact that customer loyalty and footfall goes beyond just low prices, Ms Jones says that stocking a range of premium/artisan cheeses from around the world as part of a wider fine food and deli-counter offer can create a sense of excitement and expectation that consumers, especially the growing number of Australian foodies, are looking for when shopping. “Many of our traditional, quintessentially British cheeses, as well as innovative new cheeses such as our Challenger IPA, which combines the classic taste of English cheddar with traditional IPA ale and our celebratory Champagne Cheddar, deliver a real taste and texture experience and will create a real sense of theatre on a cheese board,” she said. Smaller, trial size packs are also said to be playing an important role in building the category. “Smaller packs are encouraging consumers to experiment and broaden their cheese repertoire,” Ms Jones said. “In response, Somerdale has moved its new Westminster range into a smaller 150g retail prepack format for the Australian market and we’re also looking into prepacks under 100g to allow customers to trial new products without committing to too big a piece. “Over time, we believe that this move to smaller pack sizes will serve to increase trial and grow volumes.” A further trend noted by Ms Jones is entertaining at home, which she says is now the “new eating out”. “In part, this has been driven by a renaissance in people enjoying cooking as a leisure activity and experimenting with new ingredients and recipes,” she said. “Australian shoppers are becoming ever more adventurous in their tastes. We’re noticing increasing demand for both innovative and truly authentic cheese and dairy products. Boosted by the growing number of travel and cookery shows, Australians are increasingly looking to explore what the best in British and European food has to offer in terms of provenance, flavour, and texture. “Restrictions on eating out, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and a desire among many consumers to treat themselves during the lockdown by buying premium and innovative foods for consumption at home have also been a factor of late.” Arising challenges When it comes to challenges, Ms Jones pinpoints consumer engagement and in- store confusion as commonly problematic. “This is due in part to in-store implementation challenges and the fragmented nature of the specialty cheese category itself, which is often somewhat confusing, with different cheese types, pack sizes, formats, styles and levels of maturation,” she said. Another challenge, says Ms Jones, is that while consumers are willing to try out new cheeses, they sometimes find it hard to understand what the unique/ niche products in the fixture have to offer. “Some specialty cheese products seem a little too foreign, where there’s no clear understanding of what taste/ flavours to expect,” she said. “However, offering customers a complementary range of British and specialty cheeses provides retailers with an opportunity to differentiate themselves from the competition. We know that entertaining cheese is a high-penetration category, and therefore, stocking cheese with distinctive tastes, provenance and usage opportunities can serve to excite consumers, drawing them into the category, encouraging them to trade up and widen their cheese repertoire.” Ms Jones notes that a constant challenge for products in the lower 38 RETAIL WORLD SEP, 2020