Magazine: Salami tactics: it works!

Last year seems to have brought a positive change in the declining sausage and salami market: thanks to a good performance by salamis, sales started to grow again. Zoltán Nagygyörgy, product manager of Pick Szeged Zrt. told our magazine that comparing 2014 with 2015, winter salami volume sales were up 17.3 percent and value sales rose 11.1 percent; the same numbers for other salamis are 15.2 percent and 9.1 percent, respectively. He added that there are two reasons for the poorer performance of sausages: many new products came out in the no-mould salami category, which have a higher price-value ratio so people buy them instead of sausage; since pork’s VAT was reduced, more people started making sausage at home. Following the market trends, PICK also concentrates on the salami segment.

Pick Szeged pays growing attention to the category of convenient, snack-type products. This is the reason why they launched the 60g PICKSTICK product – in deli and hot versions – in the second half of 2015. These products are sold in both Hungary and abroad. Product manager Katalin Horváth told our magazine that the football European Championship, which is going on at the moment, is a perfect occasion for supporting the new product line: while watching the game, families can eat PICKSTICK products as a snack.

Szilvia Vízhányó-Pitrik, senior product manager informed Trade magazin that the FAMÍLIA brand targets mothers, who are busy every day to give the best to their family (sometimes from a rather small budget) – with this brand price reductions and promotion campaigns work really well. In the case of HERZ the target group is more sophisticated young consumers, who don’t necessarily choose a product based on price, but can be reached with an exciting prize game. The HERZ brand is also advertised in new ways: in the relaunch campaign, which started at the end of May and lasts until September, word-of-mouth advertising and a HERZ Food Truck that visits culinary festival are also used, just like Facebook and Instagram activities. They started building the FAMÍLIA brand in 2014 – it now has its own website (www.familiatermekek.hu) and a Facebook profile.

According to Péter Fábián, brand manager of Kaiser Food Kft., cutting the VAT on pork has already had a positive influence on the sector, because it has started to ‘whiten’ – this year sales of the company’s cured meat products are much higher than they were last year. Kaiser Food has observed two important trends: sales of self-service products are on the rise, just like the turnover realised by specialist shops. In innovation the company’s focus is on increasing the meat content of products and on developing products with special spicing. Kaiser Premium Grand salami is extra thick (11cm) and contains both oregano and bay leaves. In Békéscsaba the company developed 200g deli and hot sausages, which are aged for 5 weeks.

Krisztina Bódi, marketing director of Kometa ’99 Zrt. opines that Hungarian consumers like traditional salamis that are aged for a long time. The company’s experience is that there has been a small shift in sales in the direction of sliced products. Kométa Winter Salami is the flagship product of Kometa ’99 – this product earned the right (in the DLG certification programme) to bear a gold medal on its packaging in Germany. On consumer demand, this year the company put Kométa Winter Salami’s sliced, mix (classic and paprika) version on the market.

Gila Éva Tamáskovitsné, marketing manager of Gyulahús Kft. reckons that cured meat products are popular and consumers find it more and more important to eat quality sausages. In the last two years Gyulahús Kft.’s sales improved by 6-8 percent – sales got better in both the Hungarian and foreign markets. What is more, in 2015 The International Taste & Quality Institute awarded 2 gold medals to Gyulai Sausage, and in 2016 Gyulai Salami got the same recognition. Two years ago the company launched the Gyulai-Royal Venison product range (venison sausage and salami in paprika, hot and deli versions) in cooperation with Royal Hunting Kft. This year Gyulai extra strong sausage appeared in shops, which has already proved its worth in Sweden.

Small businesses can profit from the popularity of the artisan trend and sales by Bogád-Hús Kft. are also growing year after year – informed owner and managing director Ákos Jordán. Artisan production technology and cold smoking differentiate their hot and deli sausages and salamis from the products of competitors. The latest product from the company is the whole pepper version of the hot deli thick sausage, which is available in both self-service and deli counter formats. Just recently the BOGÁDI Kulen product won a special award at the Stifolder Festival in Feked.