Shoppers squeeze it well

By: Szalai László Date: 2024. 02. 29. 11:22

This article is available for reading in Trade magazin 2024/2-3

They are looking more closely at the unit price

High inflation and economic difficulties – Hungarians still like to eat well, especially at the holidays, and this can be a cause for cautious optimism for condiment makers ahead of Easter.

Rita Bazsó
marketing director
Univer Product

“Classic flavours undoubtedly account for the bulk of volume sales, but our experience is that customers are increasingly experimenting with flavoured condiments, showing demand for new products”, says Rita Bazsó, marketing director of Univer Product Zrt. Demand is shifting towards larger product size due to lower unit prices.

László Bruszt
managing director
Lacikonyha Magyarország

László Bruszt, managing director of Lacikonyha Magyarország Kft.:

“We are finding that consumers see horseradish and mustard as classic Easter ingredients, which have their stable place on the festive table. We expect another strong Easter season”.

Dijon mustard after the crisis

It isn’t just in the sauce segment but in most product categories that a large proportion of customers are looking for larger sizes and discount prices, informs Anett Monori, brand manager of Maresi Foodbroker Kft.

Anett Monori
brand manager
Maresi Foodbroker

She added:

“This may go hand in hand with choosing other brands or even private labels. Fortunately volumes sales of our Maille Dijon mustards have returned to the pre-mustard seed crisis level”.

The last two years have been extremely difficult for Dijon mustards: Canada used to supply 80% of the raw material for the French mustard industry, but the devastating heatwaves of 2021 virtually halved production.

Easter communication featuring new elements

In 2022 Univer launched new Erős Pista products (Erős Pista Mayonnaise, Ketchup and Garlic Cream), and consumer reaction was very positive. At the end of 2023 the company came out with Passata: a 330g tomato purée product, made exclusively with home-grown tomatoes, in innovative recyclable packaging and with Nutri-Score nutrition labelling. In terms of marketing communications, this year’s Easter period will be a special one for the company, with a new campaign featuring exciting elements.

The market is stable, but the pattern of purchases has changed a lot

Some like it spicy

Last year ended well for Lacikonyha Magyarország Kft. in both value and volume sales. The company’s experience is that consumers prefer to buy large products to save money, but quality and taste experience are still important. Hungarian people are open to piquant and characteristic flavours. Czech mustard is the most popular mustard in the Lacikonyha product selection, and their hot mustard is also a stable favourite.

Original content in a new format

Maresi Foodbroker Kft. plans to come out with several new products in 2024. The flavours will remain the same, such as the original and best-selling Maille Dijon mustards and wholegrain Maille Dijon mustards, but there will be new variants in terms of format and volume. As Hungarian customers are increasingly price sensitive, Maresi Foodbroker Kft. will do price promotions and secondary placement in stores, from April to the end of the year. //