« March 2007 Table of Contents 
Retail Report: Holiday home preparation fuels sauce/seasonings sales
Sauces/marinades peak dollar share at Christmas, seasonings/spices/breadings tops at Easter
March 01, 2007
A small yet important category in the seafood department,
sauces and seasonings consists of the two subcategories
sauces/marinades and seasonings/spices/breadings. The category
averaged 0.20 percent of total national seafood-department
dollar sales during the 52 weeks ending Dec. 31, 2006. Sauces
and seasonings reported an average of $1.58 in dollar sales per
week per store in 2006, which is down slightly from $1.79 in
2005.
Consumers often buy seafood sauces and seasonings for
parties or celebrations and as a result, category dollar sales
tend to fluctuate significantly during the holidays. In 2006,
the category saw a sharp increase in average weekly sales
throughout the year-end holiday season, topping off at an
average of $5.64 per store during the Christmas week, followed
by an average $4.08 per store during the week of New Year's
Day. The Valentine's Day holiday also brought slightly elevated
sales for sauces and seasonings, averaging $2.15 per week per
store.
Average weekly dollar sales in the East outpaced all other
regions in 2006, with $4.59 per week per store. The West was
the only region to see an increase in category contribution
from the previous year of 0.01 percentage points, while the
East remained the same from a year ago. The seafood department
experienced growth in all geographic regions; however, only the
East region reported an increase in category growth with 1.5
percent over 2005. The Central region showed the sharpest
decline in category growth, dropping 25.8 percent in 2006.
Across the United States in 2006, the subcategory of
sauces/marinades captured 58.4 percent of dollar share, with
the seasonings/sauces/breadings subcategory generating 41.6
percent of dollar sales. Sauces/marinades' peak category dollar
share occurred during the Christmas week at an average of 84.2
percent, while category dollar share of
seasonings/sauces/breadings topped out at 55.2 percent during
the week of Easter.