Sales of ready-made food grew by an average of 50% over the year

Sales of ready-made food for the year increased by an average of 50% in physical terms. Market participants informed about this to Izvestia. For example, Vkus Villa sales of such products jumped by 102%, Perekrestok – by 48%, and Azbuka Vkus – by 18.5%. Sales of ready-to-eat meals online did not increase significantly – according to Cloud Payments, over 11 months of this year by 18%.

The ready-to-eat food market is “biting off” a share of the restaurant business, said Sergei Mironov, vice-president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers of Russia. Fear of public places and rising food prices are pushing shoppers to buy food in stores, he explained. These factors can become drivers of growth in the category next year, the expert said. As Izvestia wrote, prices for dishes in restaurants this year increased by an average of 15%, and next year, according to the companies’ forecast, they may jump by another 5-15%. At the same time, the traffic in public catering in 2021 fell by an average of 20%.

According to Sergei Mironov, a ready-made dish from the counter can cost half the price of a restaurant one. At the same time, over 85% of the positions in this segment in stores have not changed in price, and only some positions have risen in price by less than 10%, recorded in the Briskly company (produces micromarkets and analyzes their sales).

The growth in demand for cooking can be facilitated by the development of micromarkets (vending machines with ready-made meals), experts say. According to retail data, this sales channel saw significant growth in 2021. According to the founder of Briskly, Gleb Khiritonov, the turnover of micromarkets is growing by an average of 16% every month.

Read more in the exclusive material from Izvestia:

“Everything is ready: sales of cooking grew by 50% over the year”