“Dairy sales have been around 14% above year-ago levels for several weeks now,” said Abrielle Backhouse, research coordinator with the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association. “That means 24 weeks of double-digit growth on the books for 2020, and importantly, this was due to strong shopper metrics all the way around,” continued Backhouse in an August 2020 report composed by Anne-Marie Roerink, president of 210 Analytics LLC.
To be fair, dairy sales in retail establishments are booming during the pandemic, but sales in restaurants are down significantly.
More trips and a bigger spend
For dairy, household penetration hovers near an impressive 99%, reported Roerink. However, what made dairy boom was more dairy product purchases and additional spending during each shopping occasion. Overall, spending per trip was up 20.8%.
As for specific spends during mid-August weekly sales, Information Resources Inc. (IRI) data has this to report when compared to the same time last year:
- Natural cheese jumped between 17.2% and 19.1%.
- Cream cheese leapfrogged 15.6% and 15.9%.
- Processed cheese climbed 13.7% and 16.7%.
- Sour cream improved 11.5% and 11.8%.
- Milk rose between 9.4% and 10.9%.
- Butter was up between 5.9% and 7.4%.
- Cottage cheese was up between 3.9% and 5.9%.
- Yogurt inched up between 2.6% and 3.3%.
By Cory Geiger, Managing editor Hoard’s Dairyman