The Size and Scope of the
U.S. Sausage Market – 2012

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 2012, dinner sausage sales tallied $2.06 billion. Breakfast sausage/ham sales came in at more than $ 1.4 billion in sales.

When it comes to sausage, the Milwaukee Brewers, home of the Klement’s sausage race at every home game, are still the only team projected to sell more sausages than hot dogs. However, The Red Sox have claimed the title of sausage kings from the Brewers with an estimated 421,200 sausages. The Red Sox are followed by the Mets with 405,000, and the Giants, Nationals, Tigers and Brewers tied with 400,000. Overall, fans are expected to consume more than 6,133, 722 sausages this season.

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.

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.

San Antonio led the way in sales of dinner sausage with dollar sales of $112 million. Los Angeles and New York were the second and third largest markets with sales of $97 million and $92 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 November through January.

Source: Refrigerated dinner sausage and breakfast sausage figures based on data collected during the calendar year of 2012, by Information Resources Inc.