Frozen food is an essential part of people’s shopping baskets, with 99.3% of UK households purchasing frozen products^[1] . Within convenience, the category has grown by 16.2% over the last year and is now worth £168.4m^[2] . Recent Birds Eye research showed that nearly half (43%) of convenience retailers reported an increase in the demand for frozen food over the last year^(3] either at the same rate or at a higher rate than other categories. This demand demonstrates a huge opportunity for the category in the months ahead, as consumers continue to look for easy, nutritious meal options they can find in their local convenience store. 

Katie Adomeit, Commercial Manager at Birds Eye, said: “The frozen category is becoming more significant than ever, especially with shoppers looking for value for money. Frozen food can be a great solution for shoppers on a budget as its inherently helps reduce food wastage, as consumers only need to use exactly what is needed for that meal. There are several ways you can maximise this sales opportunity and tap into frozen food growth in 2024.

“Whilst consumers are mindful of budgets, they are still not willing to compromise on quality, nutrition, or taste^[4] when shopping for frozen food, they want to buy food they know their families will enjoy. Some of the key category trends we are seeing include an increased emphasis on the big night in occasion, especially ‘fakeaway’ options, as shoppers look to recreate the experience of dining out in the home. As well as this, families are looking for convenient mealtime staples that everyone will enjoy – such as fish, chips, and peas. It’s therefore vital that retailers are demonstrating the value of the category, as well as ensuring that the frozen fixture can be easily navigated so that consumers can create a balanced meal for all occasions.”

Four Tips to Boost Sales

Maintain your core range: Prioritise stocking a core range of bestsellers in the freezer, such as chicken, fish, pizza, and vegetables, which shoppers look for to create simple meals for the most common shopping missions. This ensures that demand for these products can always be fulfilled, and customers won’t walk away empty handed. Birds Eye has a strong list of SKUs in its bestselling core range which are recommended to stock, including:

• Birds Eye Chicken Dippers
• Birds Eye Fish Fingers
• Birds Eye Garden Peas
• Aunt Bessie’s Homestyle chips
• Goodfella’s range of pizzas

These are classic products that shoppers know and love, supporting repeat purchases within the category.

Celebrate the Big Night In: With many people considering forgoing the weekend takeaway or meal out, shoppers are looking to up their game with ‘fakeaway’ choices. Where appropriate, look to run promotions with other categories like frozen desserts or soft drinks, or consider an always-on area within the freezer that is stocked with items like pizza or garlic bread to cater to the Big Night In occasion. Birds Eye’s Goodfella’s takeaway-style pizzas and Birds Eye Chicken Shop range have been specifically designed to tap into the ‘fakeaway’ occasion, delivering on taste, convenience and value.

Create meal deals: Meal deals represent an important sales driver and are the perfect way to provide value to those looking for a complete meal solution, so make you are offering these where possible during key occasions like sporting and seasonal events. For example, deals on roast dinner components during the Easter or festive period can be key to encouraging shoppers to purchase the full meal in your store. If you introduce a cross-category meal deal, ensure that the other products are placed next to the freezer and POS advertising the deal is clearly visible.

Separate savoury and sweet: Space permitting, ensure there is dedicated savoury and sweet sections in their freezer so that customers can easily find what they are looking for. A good way to ensure clarity in the freezer is to block by variants, such as chicken, fish, sides, and then meal solutions like pizza or ready meals, with a separate section for desserts and ice cream.

Health and Frozen Foods

Health continues to be high on the agenda for many consumers as one of the most important purchase drivers, second only to great taste⁽⁵⁾, so it’s essential to offer a range of frozen meal components and solutions that deliver on nutrition as well as being convenient. You can help your shoppers by using fixtures to reflect how consumers plan for meals using proven merchandising flows. This provides inspiration and makes the category easy to navigate, meaning that shoppers can see which sides go best with which meal centres. 

Meeting this dual demand for healthier choices and great tasting food brings challenges, but Birds Eye has made it a priority to evolve its product portfolio to benefit the health and wellbeing of shoppers. For example, 88% of the Goodfella’s pizza range is now non-HFSS, with the aim of reaching 100% in 2024 and all of Birds Eye fish, chicken and vegetable ranges are classified as non-HFSS compliant.

For more information on the Birds Eye portfolio, visit: www.birdseye.co.uk.

[1] Kantar 52 w/e data to 01.10.23

[2] Nielsen we 26.08.2023 (excludes discounters). Frozen Savoury is Fish / Coated Poultry / Processed Red Meat / Pies / Veg / Pizza / Potatoes / Yorkshires / Meat Subs

[3] KAM audit of 201 symbol or unaffiliated convenience retailers who stock frozen foods. Based on research conducted January 2023 by KAM. Question 5. Reports indicate that shoppers are increasingly looking for frozen products as part of their weekly shop – have you seen this in your store?

[4] IGD ShopperVista, base 1000+, all shoppers, August 2022

[5] U&A S2 Q8 & Q9 MMH, Q12 & Q13 Consumption drivers, consumption occasions IT 2018 total fish = 924; total frozen fish = 139