Popular hot pot food items such as frozen and fresh beef, meat/fish balls, beancurd, fungus and mushroom recorded stable sales during the summer, but the recent cold spell in Hong Kong since last November has led to a remarkable period of sales for these food categories between November 2004 and January 2005, indicating that families have been stocking up on these food items for hotpot meals. Sales of hotpot soup base sachets have also enjoyed substantial growth during the winter.

Launched in Hong Kong in 2001, ACNielsen | HomescanTM is Asia's first electronic consumer panel, capturing actual consumer purchase information from a panel of 1,500 randomly selected households throughout Hong Kong, on what consumers buy, where they buy, how much they spend and how often they shop. HomescanTM households are equipped with hand-held barcode scanners which shoppers use to enter details of their daily grocery shopping items.

"Latest ACNielsen | HomescanTM results show that in the three months from November 2004, Hong Kong families shopped more often for hot pot food items, especially among middle income, medium-sized households1 and families with children, which indicates that families are choosing to enjoy a warming hot pot meal with the family more often," said Ms Eva Ng, Associate Director, Consumer Panel Services, ACNielsen Hong Kong.

According to ACNielsen | HomescanTM data, household consumption of these hot pot items started to increase in the week of December 20 and reached its height by the end of December, when Hong Kong recorded a temperature as low as 10OC. the trends also indicated that families' appetite for hot pot meals was quite responsive to the change of weather, in fact admist cold weather warnings in late December they shopped for hot pot food items twice as often as they did early in December when the weather was warmer," Ms Ng added. (See Table 1)

Among the most commonly recognised hot pot food items, fresh/frozen beef sukiyaki and fish and meat balls recorded a spike in sales during the past three months. As Homescan?data revealed, 76% of Hong Kong families purchased these items in the past three months compared to 61% during the summer season. (See Table 2).

Spending on these items also recorded a significant increase of 80% from HK$59 per household during summer time to HK$106 during the winter season, accounting for 5% of a family's total spend on food items. Hotpot soup sachets, while coming off a small base, also enjoyed considerable growth. Other favourable hotpot food items recording a major growth were beancurd, "fungus and mushrooms"

Hot pot has been one of the most popular cuisines among Hong Kong people especially during winter. The fact that it requires no pre-cooking and is therefore convenient and fresh, are probably the main considerations for working housewives too," added Ms Ng. Increasingly we have seen food manufacturers becoming more creative in packaging their products in hot pot combo and offering more varieties. We believe this is the right way to go for the sophisticated Hong Kong consumers."

Footnote 1: Middle income households refer to families with a household income of HK$12,000-$29,000; middle-sized households refer to families with 3-4 members.

Chart 1

Chart 2

About ACNielsen
ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world's leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behaviour. Clients rely on ACNielsen's market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.x