Birds Eye reveals plan to rejuvenate flagging frozen foods category

Birds Eye has set out plans to unlock an additional £676m of revenue in frozen food over the next three years.

The frozen giant’s blueprint includes an overhaul of supermarket layouts and plans to build on opportunities online and in convenience. It added that the promotional model employed until now must change, as it had failed to drive value.

The frozen food category grew just 0.5% by value in the year to March 2015, according to Kantar Worldpanel, but Birds Eye has claimed this could be accelerated to about 25% if its plan was put into action.

Birds Eye said its category vision could be summed up by the acronym PUSH, which stands for: perception; usage; shopper experiences; and higher value.

“We have a huge job to do across the supply chain to persuade shoppers of the relevance and benefits of frozen food,” said MD Andy Weston-Webb. “The Birds Eye category vision aims to combine our innovation and communication platforms with improved in-store execution that can drive volume and value growth.”

Birds Eye has split the £676m growth across eight holistic drivers in frozen, with the largest portion of £217m coming from ‘maximising everyday meals’ followed by a further £104m from ‘raising expectations for adults’ and £77m from breakfast occasions.

Addressing the “uninspiring and unwelcoming” supermarket frozen aisles that are “difficult to navigate” is high on the to-do list, along with proposals for more user-friendly signage, colour coding and menu-based layouts.

The fixture should be divided according to different shopping missions (as highlighted in the video above), with areas for ‘Quick and Easy’, ‘Inspire Me’ and ‘Tea Time Favourites’, Birds Eye suggested.

Taking its plans one step further, Birds Eye believes frozen food can be enhanced further by developing a ‘shop within a shop’ feel. However, it highlighted that this was a longer-term plan likely to be undertaken over the next five to 10 years as part of retailers’ shop refits.

Such activity should take place alongside changing the perception of the category, which leaves frozen only featuring in 13% of meal occasions currently, Weston-Webb added.

He warned that tactics such as this would only work if retailers “have got the basics right”, which includes making sure ranges are correctly managed to enhance availability. This is likely to mean range rationalisation, something Birds Eye believes should be embraced.