Tech & Biz

Baked beans sales surge as credit crunch bites

by LotusFlower | September 3, 2008 at 12:34 pm

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The credit crunch creates lots of losers but winners too and baked bean manufacturers such as Heinz are certainly winners as people look to the relatively cheap but nutricious baked bean to fill the gaps in the menu created when money gets tight. Beans are also well known for their tendancy to increase flatulance and so another product of the current financial downturn could well be an increase in greenhouse gasses.

A surge in sales of baked beans has been put down to the credit crunch.

Sales of beans rose to just over £300m in the year to August, 12% up on last year.

As food inflation in Britain has risen higher than almost anywhere else in the developing world, consumers are cutting back on their grocery bills.

Sales of post-war, ration book era food are booming, according to statistics, and families are stocking up on canned goods.

In the 52 weeks to the end of August baked bean sales reached £300.4 million, compared with just £250.2 million three years ago, according to the market research company IRI.

The figures follow evidence from supermarkets, that shoppers are starting to buy cheaper cuts of meat, such as chicken thighs rather than breast meat and braising steaks rather than sirloin or fillet.