Meet the woman who’s freezing Jamie Oliver

Brave is a word that could be used to describe Jamie Oliver’s new frozen range. While it’s the only major grocery category in volume growth in the past year, frozen food has seen a flurry of own-labelNPD. But Megan van Someren, CCO at Jamie Oliver, insists the timing is perfect.

“Coming off the back end of Covid, there was a bit of a reappraisal from a frozen point of view that we believe we can really take advantage of,” says the American, while sitting in a meeting room named after Mary Berry at Jamie Oliver HQ. “Frozen has been an untapped category for Jamie. But it’s what he’s championed forever. So when you thought about where the frozen aisle had been, with the fairly bog standard options and the lack of innovation, and then the growth it saw throughout Covid and through the cost of living crisis, that’s where we really got excited to ask: what can we bring to truly disrupt the frozen category?”

What the brand plans to add to the category’s traditional strengths is two qualities that it believes have been in short supply: “chef credentials” and clean labels – the range has no preservatives, artificial colours or artificial flavourings.

“Jamie is well aware how frozen veg, frozen meat, frozen seafood, they all have a bad rap in people’s minds, so to reframe that and bring flavour, boldness and fun to the freezer was very much the proposition we wanted to focus on,” says van Someren.

The frozen range comprises mains including two lasagnes, moussaka and chicken tikka masala in a ready-meal format, plus ‘meal centres’ such as beef shin bourguignon and a pulled beef rib ragu, to which home cooks would add their own pasta or other sides.

There’s also a range of frozen potato sides, including hasselbacks, mash and “next-level” beef-fat frozen chips that Oliver wanted to call ‘the best f***ing chips in the world’ before being assured that wouldn’t make it past the legal team. Finally, there are three vegetable options: chargrilled pesto veg, glazed carrots and a lemon-dressed green veg medley.

It’s night and day from the usual basic frozen veg to which most Brits have become accustomed. And six of the eight meal centres and ready meals rolled out across Iceland’s Food Warehouse stores this week, with prices for all of them set at £4 before any promotions.

So, the Jamie Oliver frozen food range is off to a good start. And there are more wins in the pipeline. Three of the mains will follow into Waitrose from October. All four of the frozen potato options will be available in Iceland from January, along with an as-yet-undecided number of the frozen veg SKUs. Listings in other retailers are expected to follow in Q1 next year.

Aiming to be ‘across all the retailers’

The decision to start with Iceland and Waitrose has raised some eyebrows given their different price profiles and shoppers, but van Someren says that the difference “is why we love it”.

“Our ultimate goal is to beomnichannel, so we want to be across all retailers in the UK. But right now, we love that we’re starting with Iceland and Waitrose. Iceland is such a force in the frozen industry, and the values they’re championing we’re completely aligned to. And then to follow up with Waitrose demonstrates the stretch and the appeal of the brand and the range. It’s more culinary and it’s more premium – but at a price point that feels really accessible to the masses.”

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Van Someren expects rsps may vary by retailer but will be “similar”. Benchmarking has been a key part of the process, and the new range will compete on price with brands, if not with own label, she hopes.

And there’s lots to compete with. Recent months have seen swathes of NPD in ready meals, from retailers such as Waitrose along with restaurant brands such as The Real Greek. So, how does Jamie Oliver expect its offerings to win hearts and minds in a category that’s been inundated?

“It’s the brand. It’s Jamie,” says van Someren. “It’s a real point of difference. We’ve done a lot of research on the brand, and the three things that consistently come through are, first, the accessibility, being a bit of a solution provider. Secondly, he is a chef at the end of the day, so that brings excitement, innovation, flavour. The third part is what he’s stood for for so long around children’s health and food education.

“We’re at 98% brand awareness in the UK, 97% in Australia. So when you have that level of recognition, and it stands for those kind of positive attributes – that’s really what we believe is going to drive this.”

Consumer trust has given Oliver and his band of talented behind-the-scenes chefs “permission” to reinvent the freezer aisle, she adds. “A lot of what we learned from research was that compromise is huge in the frozen category – a sense that you cannot get both tasty and healthy, you need to make a trade-off. It was really interesting to dig into some of the barriers, because that’s where the opportunity and the problems to solve really lie for us.”