Sliced of industry

Add value to the category, offering convenience to consumers and reduce costs in stores. It is with these promises cold manufacturers have expanded their product lines sliced and packaged. Some networks are already predicting a public migration to this thread. In São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the BRF has begun the distribution of the Soltíssimo line, the Sadia brand. It comes in five versions: mozzarella cheeses and dish, ham, Bologna and Turkey Breast. R $ 70 million was invested in new equipment and modernization of the factory in Tatuí (SP), for the production of 12 tons daily of chills. Already the Ceratti spent $ 20 million on plant expansion of Vineyard, also in São Paulo, in order to increase the scale of its line of sliced. The Piracanjuba, with distribution concentrated in the Midwest and Northeast, also released new lines of its main cheeses in this format.
Another differentiator of the sliced versions by the industry is that they are easy to close and store in the refrigerator, in addition to having higher validity period – from 30 to 60 days, depending on the brand. The quantity in the package is usually patterned on 150 g or 200 g, depending on the manufacturer. This weight corresponds to most volumes acquired by the public on day to day shopping with higher prices, the industry claims that these products provide larger margins for retailers.
"From research with consumers, we defined the ideal thickness for each type of cold", highlights Rosangela Barbosa, marketing manager of BRF. According to her, the studies revealed that the public is willing to pay up to 25% more in cold that already come under these conditions, without having to face the row of slicing and dicing in supermarkets.
The increased demand by industry may help sliced reduce problems encountered when the product is handled at the store. Among them, losses, risk of non-compliance with norms of sanitary and packaging costs. "In addition to the time savings of officials, made it easier for buyers to manage requests and for refrigerated products," says Adriana Leme, São Paulo's product management Coop, 28 stores in the greater São Paulo and interior. She confirms that the margin for the retailer is better in those products. "It's still early, but we hope that, by the end of this year, 50% of our audience have migrated to these cold," estimates.
Industries which invest in the segment also claim to be satisfied with the results so far. On the estimation of Piracanjuba Claudio Costa, Manager of the refrigerated unit, is high up to 70% on sales of the new line of packaged this year. Also it is planned to expand the distribution for all Brazil. The BRF claims to have won, since the launch, 10 percentage points of market share of sliced meat in greater São Paulo, the first region to be fulfilled. IE: is it worth to follow the evolution of the segment. But the retailer has to be tuned primarily to the consumer of your supermarket. There will always be a group that would like a larger or smaller packing or you want to see the cut be made in time.