Your bacon cost how much a pound?

Monday, August 9, 2010

Consumers pay a lot for the brand name on bacon; sometimes a whole lot.

American consumers spent US$2.13 billion on the top 15 brands of bacon in the 52 weeks preceding April 18, according to a survey conducted for the American Meat Institute. Private label sales garnered $505 million on sales of 167.7 million pounds, That's about $3.01 a pound and more bacon is sold under private labels than under any single brand. But Oscar Mayer eaters paid $424 million for 88.2 million pounds of bacon. That's $4.80 a pound.

Hormel's RFG brand bacon takes the top prize for price. Sold pre-cooked and in two-ounce packages, Hormel RFG bacon drew just shy of $10.50 a pound last year. Hormel's precooked bacon sales ranked 19th among 20 brands in terms of volume, but eighth in terms of value.

Perhaps surprisingly, Smithfield was number seven with $65.2 million in bacon sales and Tyson was 10th with $48.6 million in sales.

The survey, conducted by Infoscan Reviews, Information Resources, Inc., covered sales in "supermarkets, drug stores and mass merchandising outlets (excluding Wal-Mart)." Wal-Mart does not disclose their sales data, says Tom Super, director of media outreach, American Meat Institute. BP