Magazine: Wiener shifts into fifth gear

2015 was a good year for the wiener market. However, in the first half of 2016 the market lost dynamism, mainly because of the decline in the sales of lower-priced products. The high season for the category is the end of the year. As for the sales growth of the last few years, it was primarily driven by private label wieners and frankfurters.

Zoltán Szántó, senior product manager of Pick Szeged Zrt. told our magazine that in comparison with 2010, PL wieners’ share in volume sales grew by 11 percentage points.

He added that in the first half of 2016 pork wieners’ volume share was 43 percent and their value share was 51.5 percent. Poultry wieners realised 55 percent of volume sales. The main place for buying wiener is discount stores. Erzsébet Szalayné Szilvágyi, sales manager of Sága Foods Zrt. talked to us about consumers preferring pre-packaged wieners, in part because they have all the necessary product information indicated on the packaging.

Every wiener manufacturer concentrates on the end-of-year period, coming out with special offers. Sága launched their limited edition Snacki&Góóól product for the football Uefa Euro 2016 and it proved to be a great success. In the autumn they will put two new products on the market, Frankfurter Classic and Frankfurter Piccolo – these lactose- and gluten-free products are made from turkey meat and contain no added soy. The company’s Füstli range has been popular for 15 years. Other popular Sága wiener products include Snacki&GO! (launched last year, primarily targets young consumers), Fini Mini wieners for children and upper-category Royal Bécsi Ínyenc wieners.

Pick Szeged Zrt. is present in the wiener category with more brands. Recently all PICK products got a new packaging that reflects the brand’s 3 main values: traditions, high quality and Hungarian origin. At the end of 2015 sales of PICK wieners were 16 percent higher than at the end of 2014. The relaunch of the HERZ brand is focusing on young consumers with an active social life who prefer quality products. These consumers don’t like to spend much time with eating. HERZ’s wiener and frankfurter portfolio offers them tasty food that can be prepared in minutes.

Top-quality HERZ wieners and frankfurters are characterised by high meat content and special spice use. There are three products in this range: 180g HERZ Frankfurter, Cheese Frankfurter and Chilli Frankfurter. Under Pick’s FAMÍLIA brand – which the company launched in 2014 – we find products that target mothers and housewives. FAMÍLIA Frankfurter has been available from deli counters for quite a while and this year Pick will launch the product’s 200g pre-packaged version.

Kométa 99 Zrt.’s flagship wiener product is Bécsi wiener, sales of which keep growing, thanks to its high meat content – informed Krisztina Bódi, the company’s marketing director. She added that these products cost more than the average wiener, but consumers are increasingly conscious and know that cheaper products are often of poorer quality. The company’s latest product in the category is Cocktail Wiener: high-quality peeled wieners in 1,000g packaging.

Wiener sales by Pápai Hús grew by a few percent last year – director of commerce Zsuzsa Takácsné Rácz told our magazine. The company offers a wide range of wiener products in terms of both size and price. They are preparing for the end-of-year season with the usual assortment, the star of which is traditional Pápai wiener in sheep casing. As a reaction to market demand, smaller-size products will also appear in shops – although at the end of the year wieners in the deli counter dominate: here Pápai Hús concentrates on traditional, high-quality wiener in sheep casing, in more flavours and in 1-2kg packaging size.