IRI and FMI to unveil trends in fresh food at FMI conference

IRI, a Chicago-based provider of solutions and services for consumer, retail, media and over-the-counter health care companies, and Arlington, Va.-based Food Marketing Institute (FMI) said they will be partnering at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference on Jan. 23 to unveil the top five trends that will affect the fresh food industry and retailers in 2016 and beyond. Rick Stein, vice president, fresh foods, FMI; Steve Ramsey, executive vice president, practice leader, IRI; and Sally Lyons Wyatt, executive vice president, practice leader, IRI, will discuss the organizations' fresh food research in a special “Coffee With” session titled "Top Trends in Fresh."

According to FMI and IRI, consumer emphasis on shopping the perimeter of the store is changing the retailing landscape. Using a combination of IRI data and consumer panel information and analysis, IRI solutions and consumer segmentations, secondary research and interviews with retail executives, the organizations found that five trends will affect how retailers grow in coming years. These five trends include:

• Food Transparency: Consumers want to know what’s in their food and where it originates. Retailers that embrace food transparency could grow sales up to 25 percent faster than their peers.
• Convenience: Across departments, items that meet consumers’ need for convenience are typically growing much faster than the category as a whole.
• Connected Consumer: Forty percent of consumers use digital tools before shopping the perimeter. With e-commerce sales forecasted to grow to 10 percent of total grocery sales by 2022, retailers could position themselves now to win shoppers and market share.
• New Supply Chains: In response to the first three trends, retailers are creating new sources of supply through either owning their own farms or working with local farmers and sustainable suppliers that turn the traditional supply chain upside down.
• Prepared Foods and Specialty: Retailers are going toe-to-toe with restaurants by offering such specialties as cheese shops, sushi bars and restaurant-style prepared meals. In fact, prepared foods are the third-largest perimeter department, with $11 billion in sales and growing at 10 percent a year.

To take a deep dive into each of the top five trends, IRI and FMI said they also are hosting a series of monthly webinars that will kick off in late January and run through May. The first webinar, scheduled for Jan. 28, will focus on “Food Transparency.” For more information and to register for the free webinar, visit: https://engage.vevent.com/rt/informationresourcesinc~012816.