Turning up the heat on Frozen

Frozen food has had its ups and downs over the years, but has risen to become 2018’s best-performing category across food and drink, with a value that has shot up by 6.1% with growth in each subcategory, from ready meals to vegetables and desserts.i

Looking towards premiumSo what’s changed in the past few years? A lot it turns out, most commonly the change in consumer perception of what frozen food actually has to offer.

First off, we’ve seen a palpable increase in the amount of fancy frozen dishes available to shoppers from the likes of Waitrose and M&S. Both have always been the go-to for quality, but the past drawback for consumers was the prospect of spending a pretty penny on a product that didn’t scream premium.

This however has changed in recent years; no longer are ready meals a poor man’s dinner and “homemade” quality, frozen convenience brands like COOK are leading the way when it comes to improving frozen’s reputation. Starting up in a kitchen in Kent in 1997, the company now has annual sales of up to £46 million,ii providing favourite frozen family meals made with quality ingredients. Taking an omnichannel approach, it incorporates around 80 small, modern stores and online ordering for home delivery or click and collect, with dishes including shepherd’s pie, chicken, ham and leek pie and hearty casseroles, a meal for four costs between £12 and £22.50.

It might not be the cheapest way to feed the family, but the combination of convenience, quality and firm family favourites has meant the concept has seen real success since it launched. Shoppers can navigate by number of servings, diet type or protein, making it easy to find meals that fit your lifestyle.

Charlie Bigham’s, founded a year before COOK back in 1996, is a business that has also set the standard for the premium chilled and frozen ready meal.

Guy Douglass, Managing Director at Parker Williams, the design arm of Sun Branding Solutions

The fold over card on the pack allows clear communication of product benefits, and pack formats like ceramic dishes for pies and wooden boxes for lasagnes, communicate quality as well as creating great standout in a fixture usually dominated by black CPET trays. The brand was originally designed to encourage couples to sit down and eat dinner together, and this featured in the on-pack illustrations. However, they’ve been quick to realise that the number of single-person households is on the increase, adapting their range accordingly.

Major retailers are also following suit; Iceland has been going “upmarket” for a couple of years now. This might well be a sign of things to come. With the team behind Heston Blumenthal’s Waitrose meals on board, the notion of affordable, high-quality frozen food is certainly on the agenda.

This jump in quality and taste experience is steadily trickling down to mainstream frozen ranges, giving consumers looking

“Charlie Bigham’s is a great example of a brand disrupting in its category – it turned our idea of what a ready meal should be on its head. It uses the four tools in a designer’s arsenal – colour, typography, imagery and form – to great effect.”

for convenience and value the chance to eat more varied meals made using quality ingredients. Young’s have taken the staple breaded frozen fish and created a range of products with different flavours and textures for Young’s Gastro, to create ‘restaurant quality’ meals straight from the freezer.

InnovationInnovation is being characterised by a wide choice of meal solutions in frozen. More and more, customers can choose from a wealth of dishes presented in a variety of different ways. So the process of selecting an item in a supermarket is defined by a series of factors. The product itself is king, but our impression of what we choose to buy is closely tied up with how it’s presented. It’s the same as the meal on your plate at a restaurant – we eat with our eyes. More brands are taking the same approach; when the product looks great – frozen or not – there’s a lot to be gained by allowing customers to see what they’re buying. A great example is Young’s Simply Steam, the range launched in Tesco in September, and features tasty variants such as Haddock Fillet & Parsley Sauce as well as Salmon Fillet and Sweet Chilli. It comes in a widely recyclable transparent plastic tray, and with its contents vacuum-sealed. That means not only transparent sustainable packaging design, but consumers can also see the ingredients they’re buying.

Inspiration is also key to engaging customers on the benefits of your brand. Quorn, which has already repositioned itself as a ‘healthy source of protein’ rather than meat free, to broaden its appeal, provides ideas on ‘weeknight winners’ on its website,iii these help families eat healthier while understanding the pressures on time, budget and diet that can sometimes make homecooking a chore. They have even lauched a chilled range of ready meals expanding from a frozen specialist into chilled. Bird’s Eye have launched new frozen Free From lines, including ‘gluten-free’ chicken nuggets, to bring once specialist products in to the mainstream. And although wheat and gluten free, as with lactose free, is hugely important for those with diagnosed intolerances, it’s yet another on pack claim that further

supports all-round healthier eating for those looking to make incremental changes to their supermarket shop and venture down the frozen aisle. Lactose free, is hugely important for those with diagnosed intolerances, it’s yet another on pack claim that further supports all-round healthier eating for those looking to make incremental changes to their supermarket shop.

Innovative packaging solutions are also on the agenda of brands and retailers. We live in a time where there is a huge emphasis on packaging reduction especially when it comes down to plastics. Frozen food giant Iceland announced earlier this year that it aims to eliminate plastic from all of its own label packaging; a noble cause, but one which must be balanced with consumer expectations around product life and transportability to ensure the grand gesture doesn’t damage the customer experience further down the line. We at Sun Branding Solutions view this through a different lense; plastic is not the enemy, but the way we specify it, use it and dispose of it must be responsible.

Gillian Garside-Wight, Packaging Technology Director - Sun Branding Solutions

“We have seen so much in the press about

packaging, and specifically plastic packaging,

and the damage it can cause when not disposed

of responsibly. I cannot, and will not demonise

plastic, as it provides us with the means to

protect and preserve our products and helps

us to reduce food waste which can create wider

environmental issues.”

We have created a world of convenience beyond the imagination, and although this delivers advantages it comes at a cost. Together we need to develop responsible packaging solutions which are easy to recycle and reduce, or ideally eliminate, causing damage to our planet. There is no quick and easy solution to this complex area but, one thing is for sure, we all must do more, starting today.

Millennials thawing frozenA big part of this move towards frozen can be attributed to the younger generations, more notably millennials. Millennials are all about the quick and easy, but without sacrificing taste and nutrition. Convenience is one of the biggest drivers for millennials. Frozen food enables them to have an entire meal ready without requiring them to set aside much time in their busy schedules. Just like food to go (FTG) snacks, this category fits millennials’ demand for easy eating, and offers a way to simplify cooking to suit their busy lives.

Food matters to millennials; they have an interest in what’s in their food and where it’s sourced from, demanding change from the food industry. This in turn has led to the creation of frozen food containing higher quality ingredients and a bit of a rethink as to where to position the frozen food category. Sustainable seafood, organic, ethical animal raising practices, and eco-friendly packaging can all be found in the frozen aisle these days. Millennials also focus in connecting with brands that align with their own values

There are now more than 3.5 million British people who identify themselves as vegan, helping kickstart sales of frozen foods, with people spending increasing amounts of money on things like meat-free burgers: “The £144.1m frozen veg protein market has been home to a number of innovative launches over the past year, including Linda McCartney’s vegetarian beef roast dinner and range of vegetarian finger foods such as mini vegetarian beef wellingtons and cocktail sausages.

And of course, there is the craze for ‘bleeding’ veggie burgers. Iceland unveiled its No Bull burger with soya bean and beetroot powder in April, and US burger Beyond Meat has made its UK debut as well.” iv Closer to home, Aunt Bessies ‘Carb Swaps’ range of healthier alternatives to traditional carbs has seen a 48% year on year sales increase, offering vegtable options such as swede and carrot chips.

Futhermore there is an argument for sustainability; freezing food prevents the amount of food wastage, nearly one third of food produced for human consumption end up in landfills.v Food that can be kept for prolonged periods of time reduces the amount of food waste that’s ending up in bin bags. With innovations such as diced onions and sliced avocado yet another driver for the ethical, time poor millennial to buy frozen. The benefit of stocking frozen food from a retail perspective is that products have a shelf life of around 18 months so it curbs food waste further up the chain.

With this rise in love for frozen food, we can begin to see many retailers and brands looking for ways to target this generation. It’s a category that’s certainly heating up.

Sources

i - https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/reports/category-reports/frozen-food-category-report-2018-the-comeback-kid/567425.article

ii - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-4486286/the-unpalatable-truth-ready-meals.html

iii - https://www.quorn.co.uk/recipes/midweek-meals

iv - https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/buying-and-supplying/categories/frozen/five-categories-driving-the-frozen-food-revival/567422.article

v - http://www.wrap.org.uk/

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