THE last 12 months saw the slowest growth in frozen foods in the UK for many years according to the latest market update from analyst Key Note. But the category still grew by 1.5% despite falling prices.
And Key Note says new product development will be increasingly important to future growth.
With low or negative inflation projected to continue, Key Note is forecasting value growth of 6.6% for frozen food between 2015 and 2019.
• Quoting figures from Kantar, Dr. Oetker values the pizza market at £915.2m and says frozen pizza is worth £427.7m and growing at 5.3% in value, while chilled pizza is growing at the slower rate of 3.4%.
It says its Chicago Town brand is constantly innovating to broaden its appeal. Its latest line is a limited-edition Takeaway BBQ Pulled Pork pizza.
• Ethnic and meat-free snacks manufacturer Daloon argues that frozen food remains an important element of shopping baskets and points to Kantar Worldpanel figures that value the frozen meat-free products market at £219.6m with sales growth of 4.5% in the past year.
Managing director Geoff Burgess said: “Our new retail Simply Meat Free range is a natural progression for the company.”
• Frozen cake firm Erlenbacher offers four strawberry desserts – cheesecake, buttermilk triangles, strawberry and raspberry yogurt slices and strawberry vanilla cake.
A spokesperson said: “All the strawberries are of the highest standard. The desserts are pre-cut and easy to store, with short defrosting times.”
