GAME PRESERVES

RICHARD TURCSIK

Jelly sales are sweetening. The staid jelly/jams/preserves category is staging a bit of a comeback, led in many markets by the increasing popularity of all-fruit, fruit spread and no-sugar-added products.

Heavy promotional spending from manufacturers is also a factor, said

retailers, who've noted signs of new life in their jelly sections.

And several chain executives said they expect jelly category sales to spread further, once consumers start using the new nutrition labels and find that a serving of jelly on toast is often lower in calories than butter or cream cheese.

For now, the good word on sandwich spreads is fruit. "The jelly category is now being driven by the spreadable fruits," said Michael W. Shultz, vice president of purchasing at Hughes Family Markets, Irwindale, Calif.

"Our sales of jams, jellies and preserves are up from last year. We find this is because of the new all-fruit, spreadable fruit and low- or no-sugar items. These new items have helped sales of the entire category," he said.

While Hughes is reporting an unqualified uplift in sales, other operators said they see the spreadable fruits offsetting a business that otherwise would be problematic.

Nationally, scanning data shows a total jelly/jam/preserves category gradually growing over the last five years or so.

In calendar year 1990, the category had total supermarket sales of $648.2 million; by calendar year 1993, sales had hit $683.4 million, according to data provided by Information Resources Inc., Chicago. For the 52 weeks ended May 22, 1994, the category had supermarket sales of $690.4 million, IRI said.

The Louisville, Ky., division of Winn-Dixie Stores has not seen a huge jump in jelly sales in some time. However, "we have seen some growth in the spreadable fruits over the past year,," said Jim Wiest, grocery merchandiser for the division. "Jelly continues to be a good category for us."

Jelly sales overall at Harris Teeter, Charlotte, N.C., have been on the decline recently, and the chain has deleted some items as a result. Ed Cook, director of public relations at Harris Teeter, said the "flatness of the category is a function of changing lifestyles and the movement towards healthier items."

But at the same time, he added, those lifestyle shifts are boosting sales growth in subsegments, including "the specialty and healthier items, like the sugar-free fruit spreads," he said.

A&P, Montvale, N.J., has learned to vary the selection from store to store in order to encourage sales of the spreadable fruits where they are most likely to succeed, and emphasize more traditional jellies in markets where they make more sense.

"The mixture within that category will vary according to the format of the store and the neighborhood that store is in," explained William Vitulli, vice president of government and community relations at A&P.

"In areas where you have a lot of families with small children, they are inclined to buy the products that have more sugar, because the children like the taste and they are often featured at attractive prices, like 99 cents for a 2-pound jar.

"On the other hand, there are those adults who are diet-conscious. You can take a teaspoonful of the all-fruit and it would be about 15 calories. The price is much higher on the all-fruit, but people will pay some pretty astronomical prices for good quality jellies and preserves," Vitulli said.

Some manufacturers with a heavy emphasis on all-fruit products, such as the Polaner division of American Home Products, Madison, N.J., have displayed healthy, double-digit increases.

Several retailers said sales have been helped by more advertising allowances from manufacturers, coupled with creative commercials, such as the humorous "Please pass the jelly!" spot for Polaner All-Fruit.

While the category does, in some cases, yield dividends from back-to-school promotions, retailers said the trend is more toward year-round consistency, with spikes from promotions.

"Our business in jelly is up, especially in the core items of grape jelly and strawberry preserves. We attribute the sales increase to the fact that we have been promoting," said Al Young, category manager at Big Y Foods, Springfield, Mass.

"Jelly is a highly promotional category, and there is a great deal of manufacturer support, the most aggressive of which has been Polaner. Welch's and Smucker's have promoted more on a regular basis in the last six to nine months than they ever have before," he said.

"Promotional activity has also been very heavy on Kraft. In our promotional activity we have primarily run buy-one-get-one-free or aggressive price points. When we have the aggressive price points we do force out distribution to our stores. We also ordinarily advertise a jelly item to represent the category each week," Young explained.

"I advertise jelly whenever [trade allowances are] available, because our customers are looking for sales," said Mark Polsky, senior vice president at Magruder Inc., Rockville, Md. "We do a good job with 2-pound jars in grape, strawberry, apricot, red raspberry or whatever flavor is available.

"Jelly used to be a big item for back-to-school, but now, with kids going to camp locally, there's not that much of a big bump anymore. It has become a more constant, year-round item," he added.

"Sales do pick up somewhat with the back-to-school season, but jellies have become promotionally driven. Just about the only way we can sell them is when they are on sale," said James Kaneaster, store supervisor for the 43-unit Town & Country chain, based in Mountain Grove, Mo.

An obstacle to store sales for Town & Country, especially at this time of year, is home canning, he added

Hughes works with side-stack displays for a back-to-school emphasis on the category "for various items as they are promoted by the manufacturers," said Shultz.

"The manufacturers generally support the category on a rather consistent basis, but jelly is not an overactive promotional category, except when we get new entries into the marketplace," Shultz added.

Wiest of Winn-Dixie's Louisville division said, "We haven't really promoted the jelly category any more than we have in the past, but it has always been a good product line for us and we continue to display it in the store. From time to time we will run it in an ad."

Mary Moore, director of public affairs at D'Agostino Supermarkets, Larchmont, N.Y., said her chain is building jelly sales through the use of creative recipes developed by J.M. Smucker Co., which the chain reproduces in its quarterly D'Agostino Consumer Newsletter.

For example, the newsletter's summer issue contained recipes for lemon apricot marinade and orange chili barbecue sauce, while its edition last Christmas contained recipes for fruit punch made with orange marmalade and a red raspberry mulled cider made with red raspberry preserves.

"Smucker's is putting a lot of time and thought and care into the development of the recipes and art. The photography is beautiful," she said.

Several retailers said they expect jelly sales to jell further once consumers get accustomed to the new nutrition labels and understand how jelly compares to other sandwich spreads.

"Now that nutrition labeling is in full swing, I think we're going to see some changes. I think it will aid sales in the long run. But how we're going to take advantage of it to identify it to the customer, I'm not exactly sure yet. But that is coming," said Polsky of Magruder.

"My kids would just as soon sit down at the table and put jelly on a bagel as they would cream cheese, because it is healthier," he said.