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Jump in frozen dinner sales expected

The nation's major convenience store chains are expecting to see a 20 percent to 30 percent increase in the sales of frozen dinners for Lunar New Year's Eve this year, a convenience store chain representative said yesterday.

"FamilyMart is able to control costs since we pre-ordered food materials half-a-year in advance, because we predicted that commodity prices would keep rising," Esther Lin (林翠娟), public relations manager of Taiwan FamilyMart Co (全家便利商店), said by phone yesterday.

"Consumers will find that our frozen chickens, for example, at NT$499, are cheaper than the current market price, which is about NT$800," Lin said.

Over 1 million households are expected to buy frozen dishes for Lunar New Year's Eve this year, with potential revenue estimated at between NT$2 billion and NT$3 billion (US$61.8 million to US$92.7 million), a President Chain Store Corp (統一超商) official said.

"Single orders, targeting small families, have become the major trend in recent years and accounts for over 80 percent of our sales," the official, who wished to remain anonymous, said by phone.

Meanwhile, hotel operators said consumers who plan to dine on Lunar New Year's Eve out in hotel restaurants should expect higher prices.

Antonia Pao (鮑榮君), marketing communications manager of the Westin Taipei (六福皇宮), said dining at the Westin on Lunar New Year's Eve would cost between 10 percent and 20 percent more than usual because of labor costs and high commodity prices.

"But the price of our Lunar New Year's dinner package for five to six people will be the same as last year -- NT$8,888," Pao said, adding that the company would only sell 80 such packages this year, of which 80 percent had been sold as of yesterday.

The company sold between 170 and 180 packages last year, she said.

Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), chairman of the Taipei-based Consumers' Foundation (消基會), however, called on convenience store chains and hotels to provide detailed information about their products and suppliers amid the expected rise in prices.
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