Global Convenience Store Focus

Organics Surge in Convenience

Sales of organic food in U.K. convenience stores are growing at twice the rate than at their main rivals, new data from Nielsen reveals.

While the convenience store channel only has a 5.2 percent share of the total organic market, compared with 58.1 percent at out-of-town retailers and 36.8 percent on the high street, it is punching above its weight in terms of growth.

In the 52 weeks to 9 August 2008, organic sales in the convenience channel rose by 12 percent to £80 million. Sales at out-of-town grocers, meanwhile, grew by 6 percent to £1.5bn and on the high street by a more modest 5 percent to £560 million.

Data for the latest four-week period reveals the performance of c-stores in organic is accelerating too.

In the four weeks to 9 August 2008, convenience stores grew their organic sales by 16 percent. In contrast the growth at out-of-town grocers was 3 percent and just 1 percent for the total market. Sales on the high street, meanwhile, declined by 5 percent year-on-year in the four-week period.

The positive trend for organic produce in convenience is against the grain of an overall downturn in organic sales as the credit crunch starts to bite.

Nielsen data shows expenditure on organic dipped in the four-week period after Easter in all channels but recovered during May and June. In August, however, expenditure in all channels declined although the convenience sector remained in a stronger position.