Whether it is grass-fed butter, nutritional beverages or lactose-free milk, the range of products on the supermarket shelves continues to diversify. But does this represent an opportunity or plain hard work to keep up?
Dairy diversity and opportunity
We asked a group of international dairies to share their outlook on the future in a snap online survey. See the results here.
1. Consumer tastes are changing – on a scale of 1-5 how big of a challenge is this for your business?
2. How big do you see the potential of turning changing consumer trends into a business opportunity?
3. Are you planning to expand your product types within the coming year?
4. If you answered yes, how challenging is it to expand your product range?
5. How much is your business affected by the increasing demand from retailers or consumers wanting knowledge and reassurance about product quality?
Survey takeaways
All answers indicate a continuing trend towards diversification, for example, with only nine respondents out of 61 stating that they have no plans to expand product types within the next year.
The survey shows a generally positive outlook in relation to the potential of product diversification. The highest rating on the 1-5 scale was for question two about the business potential of turning consumer trends into opportunity.
Despite the positive outlook, moderate to difficult challenges are seen on the horizon.
Question five shows a growing demand for more knowledge and reassurance about product quality. Changing consumer tastes is clearly a business challenge (question 1) while expansion of product range (question 4) nudges ahead as a major perceived challenge in satisfying increasingly sophisticated consumer tastes.
