Focus On Frozen Food: 22 February

By Megan Tatum (wordsbymegantatum@gmail.com)

Publishing: 22 February 2025

Advertising deadline: 7 February 2025

Submissions deadline: 27 January 2025

Print, digital and sponsorship opportunities

Frozen food is breaking out of the freezer aisle. The past year has seen several initiatives integrating frozen food into the wider store, with Sainsbury’s rolling out branded vertical freezers into chilled aisles in several outlets, Booths adding “scoop your own” concessions to all it stores and one frozen ready meal brand aiming to expand its portfolio of concessions in retailers by a further 150 outlets this year. What impact is all this having on sales? To what extent is this encouraging shoppers to reappraise frozen food? How else are brands and retailers working together to develop new ways of merchandising frozen food? And what’s in store for the coming year?

Retail share: This feature will explore how different retailers are managing the category in terms of ranging, promotions, merchandising and balancing brands and own label product assortments. How are brands working with retailers to create excitement in the fixture? Which retailers are in strongest growth and why?

Merchandising: The central angle of this feature will be the merchandising of frozen food. We’re looking to speak with retailers, brands and store design experts to explore efforts to make frozen food a more exciting destination for shoppers, either by making the central fixture more exciting and eye-catching or moving it into the wider store.

Brands versus own label: NIQ’s analysis shows that own-label is out-performing brands in most frozen food categories. This feature will explore how retailers have developed their own label ranges in the past year and how they’re likely to evolve in coming months. How do brands and own label compare in terms of price, quality, etc?

Innovation: This feature will also pay close attention to the latest trends in the frozen food market and how this is playing out in terms of product innovation. We will profile four new products or ranges, ideally ones that have not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.