Cordon Bleu | The great return of canned meatballs

Sales of Cordon Bleu meatball stew have seen solid growth since the pandemic. For its 90th anniversary, the Montreal brand is setting out to conquer younger customers. Here and elsewhere.

We don’t get confused, but we see that there was a good brushstroke – blue! Even if you haven’t purchased Cordon Bleu products since the dawn of time, you will feel the rejuvenation, just by looking at the presentation of the products. More modern, very classic.

The Montreal company brings together many products. In addition to sauces and stews, the brand got its hands on Paris Pâté and Clark beans in 1983 and 1990.

These foods have a few things in common: they are all canned, are part of Quebec’s food heritage and are affordable, which has encouraged sales growth in this inflationary period.

“All our categories are growing,” explains Patricia St-Aubin, “year after year. »

The sales increases are significant. A 107% increase in the last five years for meatball stew. Paris Pâté is not to be outdone, with a 26% increase. The Clark “bins”? A jump of 34% in five years.

Amazing, isn’t it?

Not at all, replies professor emeritus of marketing at HEC Montréal Jacques Nantel, who is a member of the board of directors of Aliments Ouimet – Cordon Bleu. He explains that the brand focuses in particular on comfort, ease of preparation and affordability, which consumers are looking for, more than ever.

The evolution of our food purchasing habits towards low-cost brands confirms this appetite for less expensive foods, explains Jacques Nantel. Cordon Bleu stews are available everywhere; some of the brand’s products can also be found at Dollarama.

“It fits into this sector,” explains the professor who adds that the company has put a lot of effort into innovation in its brands for five years.

Need comfort

Patricia St-Aubin goes in the same direction, the comfort side allows us to understand the growth in sales of baked beans, pâtés and other canned products.

“Stew is definitely a product that is accessible,” she says, specifying that in a context of inflation, foods that offer a good cost-protein ratio are popular.

An example: Clark’s canned maple syrup flavored beans are on sale and retail for $0.99 at IGA this week (for 398 ml). That’s a hard price to beat.

Another point that worked in favor of the Cordon Bleu brand: the pandemic context gave rise to a certain need for comfort which was felt in the aisles of supermarkets.

And these people who have known the brand for a long time, and love it, are extremely loyal, she says.

The challenge now is to find new customers for certain classics. “We have two categories of products that are aimed at different consumers,” explains Patricia St-Aubin.

Sauces, more expensive, reach a younger and broader clientele with products like three pepper sauce which is not a staple. The buyers of stew are often older. By modernizing the brand’s image, we want to appeal to younger people.

An ecological argument could contribute to this, specifies Jacques Nantel. “Canned goods, unlike for example plastic packaging,” he says, “can be recycled ad infinitum. »

Growing canning

“I am convinced that we are gradually moving towards the return of canned goods,” explains the marketing professor. Various studies by market observers confirm this trend.

The global canned food market is expected to grow 3.78% annually until at least 2027, according to a forecast from Industry Research Biz.

According to Jacques Nantel, if some people turn up their noses today at canned dumpling stew, in a few years, we could well see Cordon Bleu becoming a brand that is coming back into fashion, driven by this desire to have a good relationship quality price and buy a more durable product.

“There is more and more awareness that canning is something remarkable,” he says, “both environmentally and in terms of food preservation. » Which allows manufacturers to use fewer preservatives, another quality dear to a younger clientele.

The change to the packaging for Cordon Bleu is accompanied by a major advertising campaign.

“The campaigns are aimed at a younger, more diverse audience, and rely heavily on reassurance,” explains Jacques Nantel. We are focusing on the use of outdoor billboards. […] Basically, they say you’re stuck in traffic, it takes two hours to get home, but five minutes to make dinner. »

In the coming months, Cordon Bleu also wants to make a breakthrough into other markets, particularly the United States. And launch new products in Quebec too, taking advantage of this growth. But without removing the classics.

“The COVID years in the cane industry were spectacular years in terms of sales,” confides Patricia St-Aubin. We won’t hide it. I think we were discovered during that period. COVID has propelled us to where we are now. So we are going to renew ourselves and we are going to continue: we are going to modernize and we are going to keep our cultural relevance. »