Moy Park is flying high for 2018

Karen Kelso, director of business at Moy Park speaks to Neighbourhood Retailer about the top consumer trends for 2018 and how Moy Park can assist retailers in delivering these to their customers.

Throughout 2017 product development remained a top priority for Moy Park who continued to produce a diverse range of poultry products across fresh primary, coated, and ready-to-eat categories.

Last year also saw the company continue to build brand awareness and increase visibility of all their products through a sustained marketing campaign. Speaking to Neighbourhood Retailer, director of business, Karen Kelso said: “In 2017 we really harnessed the power of digital media to great success through the Moy Park ‘Rule the Roost’ campaign. We staged our own game show on Facebook Live and reached millions of consumers across Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.”

Moy Park’s industry leading marketing and innovation teams work closely to identify key trends and develop innovative product ranges in line with evolving consumer demands and tastes.  From their extensive insights Karen tells Neighbourhood Retailer that current consumer trends include health, convenience, and a ‘sense of experience’.

Karen said: “Consumers are increasingly time poor so seek convenient solutions in all areas of their life. We’ve seen strong market growth in sectors which add elements of convenience to products, whether that is in terms of reducing cooking time, adding flavourings or making the packaging easier to use.

“Within health shoppers are moving away from products with ‘ingredients removed’, e.g. low fat and low calorie – to more intrinsically healthy products, which provide a specific nutrient benefit. An example of this is the rise of consumers increasing their intake of protein.  As a naturally high protein product, chicken is ideally placed to cater to this need.”

Karen also believes that in recent years the brand has seen a rise in consumers seeking out different experiences and adventure as their horizons broaden both by their own travel experiences and by what they see in social media. She said: “Chicken is the perfect meat to experiment with flavour combinations – and a category like ready to eat chicken really allows us to bring new taste experiences to consumers.”

Moy Park’s category and insight team has a wide array of cross-category, cross-channel data, and insight at its disposable and is therefore ideally placed to assist retailers in adhering to current consumer trends. They are also able to help retailers make objective decisions on ranging, merchandising, and NPD which is aimed at growing the category as a whole.

2018 promises to be a busy year for Moy Park whose key focus is to develop sales within the ROI convenience sector. “We believe we are in a strong position to do this in 2018 and our brand strategy will also include a packaging refresh and integrated marketing campaign which will include above the line advertising, POS, digital and PR.

“At Moy Park we pride ourselves on our heritage, food safety and expertise. We operate a fully integrated farm-to-fork supply chain, and as a result are a trusted supplier for the retailers we work with,” Karen added.