Increased out-of-stocks in the cooking oil segments have led to lost sales of around €57 million in France and £18 million in the UK since the beginning of the year, new data from NielsenIQ has found.
Cooking oil has been one of the categories most affected by the war in Ukraine – the country is the leading global exporter of sunflower oil – as well as commodity price increases and supply chain challenges.
The heightened supply chain issues have heavily impacted cooking oil, one of the categories most significantly impacted with out of stocks, NielsenIQ said.
'Significant Sales' Losses
“In France, we saw an on-shelf availability rate of 75% of cooking oil in May, meaning that cooking oil was out of stock in 25% of cases," commented Dan Sutton, analytics manager, Retail Collaborative Solutions at NielsenIQ. "Not only can retailers lose significant sales as a result of out of stocks, but it also results in reduced customer satisfaction and lower loyalty levels."
Also for the month of May, on-shelf availability of cooking oil stood at 78% in the UK and 75% in Spain.
“Our research shows that 30% of shoppers will visit a new store when they can’t find what they’re looking for, and 70% will buy a different brand when their regular choice is out of stock," Sutton added.
Across All Sectors
Across the board, in France, Spain and the UK, approximately 4% of overall FMCG products were out of stock at some point during 2022, for an average of four days, NielsenIQ found.
While this number seems insignificant, a 4.4% out-of-stock rate in France resulted in €851 million in missed sales since the start of the year, while in the UK, a 4.0% figure represents approximately £1 billion in missed sales.
“While a 4% out of stock rate might seem small, the value in missed sales this represents is huge," said Sutton.
Read More: Sunflower Oil Supplies Improve As EU Market Adapts To War In Ukraine
© 2022 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest A-brands news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
