According to a major supplier of supermarket lunch deals, office workers are switching from sushi to sandwiches due to the rising cost of fish.
Dalton Philips said that the increasing cost of fish made many sushi products prohibitively expensive.
He said: “The prices are so high because of inflationary forces.” It has moved to a more expensive price.
It’s the price of producing fish. There are wild and farmed fish, but the supply chain has seen a huge increase.
The company sold 3.5% more sandwiches compared to last year.
Mr Philips said that the drop in demand for Sushi was compounded because shoppers were returning to chains like Yo Sushi! Since the end of pandemic, many restaurants have reopened.
He said: “There was a large number of specialty sushi providers who closed during COVID and the supermarkets took an disproportionate share.” The branded sushi vendors that you see in the high street are all open and back.
As the cost of living goes up, office workers are choosing to eat meal deals at supermarkets and sandwiches instead of fast food restaurants.
Mr Philips continued: “More than 52pc (of all sandwiches) are sold in meal deals. A meal deal costs approximately £3.50 and includes a sandwich, a drink and a snack. It’s about half the cost of [fast food].
Greencore, Britain’s largest sandwich maker, also supplies Boots Aldi Lidl. It produces 779 million sandwiches and other foods to go every year. This includes around 25 million sushi packs and 132,000,000 chilled ready meals. It employs 13600 people in 16 factories across the UK.
Mr. Philips said the company had extra costs of £200m last year, and they covered this by raising prices.
Greencore announced on Tuesday that sales at the company rose 10pc, to £1.9bn in the year ending September 29. Pre-tax profits also increased 13.6pc, to £45.2m. Greencore said that the company’s sandwich sales were boosted by an increase in full-time employees returning to work.
Mr Philips stated “You have a lot of mobility on the high-street.” More people work five days a week in an office than in hybrids.
Greencore shares fell as much as nine percent on Tuesday.