Sour Cream Sales Inch Up While Butter Slips

Dairy Foods, Oct, 2001

While dollar sales of both sour cream and butter are up significantly, volume sales increased slightly for sour cream, while retreating a bit for butter, according to the most recent reports from Information Resources Inc.

Rising prices meant an increase of 4.4% in dollar sales for the top ten vendors of sour cream during the 52-week period ended July 15. But look at the volume numbers. That's not such a pretty picture. For the group, volume sales grew just a bit more than half a percentage point. For some brands there was a double-digit tumble in sales volume.

For pancake lovers the price of a pound of butter may be too much to pay. Volume sales were down 0.8% for the top ten vendors and brands, while dollar sales rose a respectable 9.3%. Some butter has done better than other butter. Tillamook County Creamery had a whopping 29.6% jump in butter sales volume over the same period a year ago. Hotel Bar Foods, however lost 28.5%. Crystal Farms lost 22.6% by volume. Private Label accounts for about half of the top ten brands of butter, and private label sales were off even more than the average at 1.3%.

Dollar sales for butter jumped even more than for sour cream, with a 9.3% dollar sales growth for the top ten.

On the sour cream side, Kraft Foods, which accounts for about 15% of the top ten sales was down 1.6% in volume sales. Marigold Foods sold 21.4% more by volume than for the same period in 2000. Crowley Foods and Daisy Brand both saw double digit dips in volume.

These figures reflect supermarket and super-center sales data collected by Information

Sales Growth for Top 10 Butter Brands
                     Dollar Sales  Dollar % Change  Volume %
                     in Millions   from Prior Year   Change
Private Label            $518                 8.6%     -1.3%
Land O' Lakes            $397                10.1%      0.9%
Challenge Butter          $51                 8.7%      1.5%
Breakstone Butter         $22                 2.2%     -4.2%
Crystal Farms             $22                  41%    -22.8%
Tillamook Butter          $21                48.5%     29.6%
Kellars Butter            $17                -9.3%    -13.4%
Hotel Bar Butter          $15               -20.3%    -28.5%
Cabot Butter              $13                59.7%       47%
Land O' Lakes Light       $13                -4.8%    -12.7%
Total                $1.1 billion             9.3%     -0.8%
Source: Information Resources Inc.
For 52 weeks ended July 15, 2001
Sales Growth for Top 10 Vendors of Butter
                            Dollar Sales  Dollar % Change  Volume %
                            in Millions   from Prior Year    Change
Private Label                   $518                 8.6%     -1.3%
Land O' Lakes                   $411                 9.5%      0.4%
Challenge Dry Products           $55                 7.6%      0.4%
Crystal Farms                    $22                40.8%    -22.6%
Kraft Foods                      $22                 2.2%     -4.2%
Tillamook County Creamery        $21                48.5%     29.6%
Kellars Creamery                 $17                -9.3%    -13.4%
Hotel Bar Foods                  $15               -20.3%    -28.5%
Cabot Creamery                   $13                59.7%       47%
Quality Chekd Dry Products      $8.5                12.9%     -1.5%
Total                       $1.1 billion             9.3%     -0.8%
Source: Information Resources Inc.
For 52 weeks ended July 15, 2001
Sales Growth for Top 10 Brands of Sour Cream
                          Dollar Sales  Dollar % Change  Volume %
                          in Millions   from Prior Year    Change
Private Label                 $845                 1.9%      6.7%
Kraft Natural                 $311                -1.7%      0.0%
Tillamook Natural Cheese      $148                14.8%     10.8%
Kraft Cracker Barrel          $100                -7.7%     -9.1%
Polly O Natural                $64                -1.5%     -1.7%
Precious Natural Cheese        $51                 3.7%     -14.%
Sargento Natural               $47                37.2%     37.5%
Athenos Natural                $46                -4.3%    -10.4%
Frigo Natural                  $44                 -4.3     -10.4
Crystal Farms                  $30                30.7%     30.3%
Total                     $2.4 billion             4.1%      4.7%
Source: Information Resources Inc.
For 52 weeks ended July 15, 2001
Sales Growth for Top 10 Vendors of Sour Cream
                    Dollar Sales  Dollar % Change  Volume %
                    in Millions   from Prior Year    Change
Private Label           $189                 5.1%      0.3%
Kraft Foods              $90                 0.2%     -1.6%
Daisy Brand Inc.         $71                12.4%    -10.4%
Knudsen Corp.            $58                -4.5%     -9.2%
Land O' Lakes            $21                -7.0%    -13.4%
Marigold Foods         $11.4                34.2%     21.4%
Dean Foods             $10.7                 7.5%      7.1%
Friendship Dairies       $10                 8.8%      6.3%
Crowley Foods           $8.2               -12.9%    -12.4%
Gandy's Dry Inc.        $8.1                11.9%      5.9%
Total                   $599                 4.4%      0.6%
Source: Information Resources Inc.
For 52 weeks ended July 15, 2001