FOODSERVICE OPERATORS will be able to access more relevant information on food price trends from December 2015.
The Foodservice Price Index (FPI) has been developed as a more accurate and relevant alternative to the government’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). CPI data doesn’t reflect prices on offer to caterers, but is calculated using supermarket selling prices instead of foodservice wholesale prices.
A joint venture between Prestige Purchasing and CGA Strategy, the FPI has now revealed that the deflationary trends in recent CPI statistics are only partially reflected in the foodservice market. The aim is to “create a more accurate and relevant toolbox for the foodservice world”.
The supermarket price wars, exacerbated by the increase in discounters, convenience and online, has created “a major drag on prices, which is not the situation in the foodservice wholesale market,” explains Phil Tate, CEO of CGA Strategy. “We’ve been through 101 million rows of historical data points from wholesalers from the last 24 months and compared them to CPI. There is a clear difference in trends between the two sectors.”
Like the CPI, the FPI will be based on a basket of goods, but it will be gathered from wholesalers rather than retailers.
