Making mass-premium meats accessible to Singapore consumers

The Delicato brand grew to close to 20% share within the mass-premium retail packaged sausages segment in FairPrice.

There is a growing interest amongst Singapore consumers towards fine-quality meats and deli offerings. Currently, Singapore’s mass-premium delicatessen retail packaged goods are worth more than $S8m annually.

Market leader Johnsonville owns approximately half of the mass-premium retail packaged sausages in Singapore, with most of their cooked sausages priced at $9.85 per pack. Other brands such as Willms have their sausages priced at $10.50 per pack.

The price of quality pork sausages being more than twice the price of regular pork sausages mean that many consumers only buy the product during the festive period, such as Christmas when they are willing to spend a bit more on meat and delicatessen products.

This poses a challenge for NTUC FairPrice Cooperative in making such products accessible to more consumers. With this, the Delicato brand was launched in September 2021.

Delicato is a meat and delicatessen brand which aims to provide consumers with fine-quality meats and delicatessen offerings at a great price. It is available in the form of hot deli counters at FairPrice Xtra NEX Mall, FairPrice Finest Holland Village and FairPrice Finest Causeway point.

The company also launched the Delicato mass-premium retail packaged goods in form of cooked sausages, antipasti & dips. Its star products—the pork-cooked sausages—are priced at $8.95 per pack, which is around 15% to 20% lower than national brands. This makes Delicato more affordable and accessible to consumers.

To meet Delicato’s brand mission, it had two non-negotiable criteria in the product development decision-making process: quality of ingredients and the taste that was preferred by the majority of consumers. FairPrice had to go through multiple loops of recipe creation, consumer blind taste testing research, and recipe refinement together with its supplier.

A year into its launch, it achieved remarkable success. Delicato was able to build a $1m brand in 12 months, from 0% to close to 20% share within the mass-premium retail packaged sausages segment in FairPrice. It grew the category by almost 20% for mass-premium retail packaged sausages in Supermarket format in the Heartland area.

Delicato’s stellar performance has been recognised, with the company winning the Designed in Singapore Awards - Food. The performance observed from its launch and line extensions boosted FairPrice’s confidence to develop the brand further into a Western cooking brand, more than just a delicatessen or quality meat provider.

The prestigious awards programme recognises exceptional products that are proudly manufactured and designed in Singapore.

The Made and Designed in Singapore Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2023 awards programme and be acclaimed for your exceptional products that are proudly manufactured and designed in Singapore, please contact Jane Patiag at jane@charltonmediamail.com.