Goodfellas has announced plans to relaunch its Deeply Delicious frozen brand while rival producer Schwann's is investing £5m in its Chicago Town range, in an attempt to grow the struggling frozen pizza category.

Despite topping the frozen pizza charts, sales for the Goodfellas pizza variant fell by 0.2% last year to £38.9m, according to ACNielsen, while the category overall was down 2% for the year to 7 October 2006.

In a bid to reverse this, Goodfellas said it has now improved the texture of the deep-pan base, using a pizza dough that contains less salt than the previous version, and no hydrogenated or trans fats. The Deeply Delicious range also has five new varieties including: Loaded Cheese, Pepperoni Perfecto, Chicken & Bacon Club, and Meaty Mayhem (rsp: £2.09).

"As the number one manufacturer of frozen pizzas we are constantly looking to innovate and respond to consumer demands," said David Wilson, senior brand manager.

Rival producer Schwann's, which spent 2006 revising recipes for its Chicago Town range to meet current health demands, is investing £5m in the brand for 2007, including a deal with ITV to sponsor American Idol in the UK.

But there will also be product launches for the freezer cabinet from other suppliers.

Bradford-based Anaka Foods has announced that it is launching Gino's Pizza Heaven, which has a heavy focus on healthy ingredients.

The new microwaveable frozen brand is low in fat, salt and sugar and contains no hydrogenated fats, preservatives or colourings. The company will launch a Cheese and Tomato variant from mid January priced at 79p, or 99p for one with Omega-3.

"We thought it better to give customers a choice, because there is quite a price gap between them," said managing director Kaleem Ahmed.

Additional variants will follow later in the year.

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