The Blue Dragon brand is worth £29.3m with a year-on-year growth of 19%. This equates to a 19.4% share of the Oriental Food market. Blue Dragon currently sells more units of sauces and noodles each year than any of its competitors. 38.8 million Blue Dragon sauces or noodle SKU’s are sold each year and one in three Oriental sauce products sold in the UK is a Blue Dragon product. One of the reasons for Blue Dragon’s success across the Oriental category, is the brand’s commitment to producing authentic Oriental products. For example, the ingredients for Blue Dragon’s Premium Curry Pastes are sourced in Thailand and the ingredients for Blue Dragon’s Premium Stir-fry Sauce range are sourced in Malaysia.
Blue Dragon Sauces…
Blue Dragon is going from strength to strength within the Oriental Sauce market – the brand is currently worth £17.9m and is growing at a rate of 20.3% year-on-year, which equates to a current market share of 19.5.
In the Oriental Stir-Fry Sauce segment, Blue Dragon is the market leader. Blue Dragon Stir-fry Sauces are currently worth £10.5m and are growing 14.4% year-on-year. Blue Dragon has attracted 410,000 new buyers to its stir-fry range in the last year alone, leading to a 34.6% market share. Blue Dragon has grown its presence in the stir-fry category through successful promotional activity on the well-established 120g sachets, as well as attracting new buyers with innovative new ranges in the form of premium sachets and premium jar stir-fry ranges.
Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce is the number one Oriental dipping sauce on the market with a 72.8% market share. Blue Dragon Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce is worth £6.2m and is growing at a strong rate of 38.2% year-on-year. Blue Dragon has recently increased its range of Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauces to include Hot and Kaffir Lime variants. Sweet Chilli is an immensely popular dipping sauce flavour and so extending variations on this core variant is proving very popular with consumers.
Most recently, Blue Dragon extended its dipping sauce offering with the introduction of four new squeezy variants. Blue Dragon squeezy Thai Sweet Chilli – Hot, Malaysian Satay, Chinese BBQ and Chinese Sweet & Sour have been added to the original Blue Dragon squeezy Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce. The new Blue Dragon squeezy sauce range combines an easy-to-use shatterproof (plastic) format with popular take-away flavours. Designed to be enjoyed at home – indoors and outdoors – this new authentic-tasting range (manufactured in Thailand and Malaysia) is set to further facilitate the stretching of Oriental flavours outside the Oriental aisle and into the condiments sector.
Blue Dragon Noodles…
Overall Blue Dragon Noodles are worth £5.2m and are growing at a rate of 26.5% year-on-year, resulting in a 14.9% share of the category. Blue Dragon has experienced huge growth in the noodle category in the past year, in part down to in-store promotions and a consumer-directed education campaign providing consumers with recipes to illustrate the convenience of using noodles. To maintain this growth, Blue Dragon continues to educate consumers via on pack recipe suggestions, providing usage occasions for both wet and dry noodles, which allows retailers to drive profits by tapping into consumers’ increased interest in Oriental cuisine.
Blue Dragon Coconut Milk & Cream…
Blue Dragon is the brand leader in the Coconut Milk and Cream market with 46.3% share, and is growing by 21.9% year-on-year. The first company to bring canned coconut milk to the UK, Blue Dragon’s coconut products deliver on taste and consistency, which leads to repeat purchase. The brand has extended its core variant of Blue Dragon Coconut Milk as a result of its popularity to include; Coconut Milk Light, Thick & Creamy Premium Coconut Milk, Coconut Cream, Coconut Powder, Coconut Block as well as Organic Creamed Coconut Block and Organic Coconut Milk, sourced from Sri Lanka.
Blue Dragon New Product Development
Blue Dragon is committed to creating innovative NPD to reflect consumer demand and provide increased choice. 2008 has already seen Blue Dragon launch two new premium stir-fry jar flavours within its Chinese range, which hit shelves in January ’08 – these are Blue Dragon Hoi Sin & Sesame Sauce and Blue Dragon Soy, Honey & Garlic Sauce.
Recent Blue Dragon NPD in sauces (introduced in October 2007) include the introduction of the 200g jar stir-fry sauces (Satay, Honey & Cashew, Golden Plum & Chilli) and a premium range of stir-fry sachet sauces (Sticky Plum, Sweet Soy & Roasted Red Chilli, Black Bean with Roasted Garlic & Chilli, Chinese Mushroom & Garlic and Tangy Lemon with Ginger & Cracked Pepper). The new range adds value to the Oriental sauces category by encouraging consumers to trade up within the premium sauces range. A ‘Hot’ variant was also added to the Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce range in October 2007, offering a hot twist to the classic, best selling dipping sauce.
The brand has also recently refreshed its Blue Dragon Thai Green Curry Paste and Blue Dragon Thai Red Curry Paste. These premium pastes are part of the Thai product range and are sourced and manufactured in Thailand.
Blue Dragon Marketing Activity
In May 2008 Blue Dragon launched a new national TV advertising campaign, designed to reinforce its authentic credentials, drive consumer awareness of the brand and its key products and to enthuse the nation to create Oriental meals at home. Blue Dragon’s two commercials, introduced a new brand strapline, ‘The East Made Easy.’
Packaging & Merchandising
Blue Dragon is committed to packaging its products in a way that is easy for consumers to use and preserves the sauce in the best possible way. Consumers have differing packaging requirements, for example some consumers cooking for one or two prefer smaller size products so they can add flavour to their meal, while others want family-sized jars to bulk out a meal. Similarly some consumers want clear glass packaging so they can see the sauce whilst this is not important to others. Blue Dragon sauces are available in both sachets and jars to meet all of its consumers’ needs.
An example of Blue Dragon’s dedication to improving its packaging formats is the jars used for the new Blue Dragon Premium Thai Curry Pastes. These are available in 110g jars to ensure freshness is guaranteed. Each jar contains 2 servings, for immediate use, delivering optimum flavour.
As the Blue Dragon product range expands, so does the impact the products have on-shelf reinforcing its position as the signpost brand for authentic oriental cooking in the category. The prominent blue and yellow Blue Dragon logo, is instantly recognisable and immediately communicates the brands authentic oriental cooking message.
Attracting Oriental food fans to cook and prepare Oriental food at home can be encouraged through consumer education, with recipe leaflets, on pack recipe ideas and improved clarity at point of purchase, such as positioning stir fry sauces near stir fry ingredients.
Blue Dragon Looking to the Future
Blue Dragon continues to provide UK shoppers with products that are in line with their needs, making Far Eastern foods accessible to the West, while maintaining high standards of quality and authenticity. Blue Dragon products are represented across Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Malaysian cuisine, establishing the brand as the most accessible, authentic pan-oriental brand.
Blue Dragon
Tel: 01942 267090
www.bluedragon.com
2 Comments
Why am I unable to buy Blue Dragon Lemon Sauce anymore.
Both Morrisons and Tesco no longer stock it
Why can’t i buy Blue Dragon sauce anymore ? I can’t find at any of the supermarkets i have travelled to both at home and when on holiday? Why don’t Blue Dragon sell direct to the public for bulk orders?