The Size and Scope of the
U.S. Sausage Market – 2008

Sales

Dinner Sausage

Sausages are enjoying unprecedented sales in the United States, as new flavors, convenient products and many great tasting old standards have enjoyed steady category growth.

Retail sales of sausages in major markets are collected by aggregating products scanned at the checkout counter or through scanner wands used in some households. Scanners read bar codes on uniform-weight products, like a package of ten to the pound branded wieners. The numbers are tracked by reporting companies. Scan data collected in homes is projected across the population. However, many sausage products are sold as "random weight" items, meaning retail packages are not of uniform weight and often not tracked by scanners.

According to figures for 2008, dinner sausage sales increased 2 percent, with more than 1.7 billion in sales. Breakfast sausage sales remained relatively steady, at 9 million in sales.

New York and Los Angeles markets showed a large percentage increase in dinner sausage sales for 2008. There was an 11.7 and 7.6 percentage increase, respectively.

A survey of Major League baseball parks in 2009 revealed that

When it comes to hot dog’s close cousin, the sausage, no one is in the same ballpark as The Milwaukee Brewers. It is projected that 430,000 sausages will be served this year at Miller Park. If the Miller Park Sausage Race, the race of sausage mascots held before the bottom of the sixth inning at every home game, were based on consumption stats rather than speed, Brett Wurst the bratwurst would cross the finish line first (330,000 projected to be sold), followed by Frankie Furter (300,000); Guido the Italian Sausage (45,000); Stosh Jonjak the Polish sausage (40,000); and Cinco the Chorizo (15,000).

The New York Mets finished a distant runner-up to the Brewers, with approximately 405,000 sausages expected to be sold in the new Citi Field stadium this year. Finishing third in the NHDSC’s first-annual sausage consumption survey is Comerica Park, home of the Detroit Tigers, with 250,000 projected in sausage sales.

Unfortunately, there is a limited amount of data available about the sales of sausage in other foodservice outlets. However, foodservice sales of breakfast and dinner sausages are substantial.

Breakfast Sausage

Sales of breakfast sausage are approximately 36 percent of total dinner and breakfast sausage sales according to 2008 sales data.

Demographics

Dinner sausage consumption is fairly uniform throughout various income levels, while lower income families consume the most breakfast sausage.

Larger families eat the most breakfast and dinner sausage, as do younger families, with sausage consumption leveling off considerably for senior citizens. Residents of the Deep South consume the most dinner sausage, followed by the Northeast, according to a survey conducted by the Council.

Los Angeles, Calif. led the way in sales of dinner sausage again this year with dollar sales of $82 million. New York and Chicago were the second and third largest markets with sales of $81 million and $51 million, respectively.

Sausage consumption also varies by season. Dinner sausage sales reportedly peak during the summer months, with dollar sales accounting for nearly one-third of annual sales. Breakfast sausage sales peak during holiday months from Nov. - Jan.

Source: Refrigerated dinner sausage and breakfast sausage figures based on data collected during the calendar year of 2008, by Information Resources Inc.