What you need to know
Sales of prepared meals have come under pressure over recent years, with frozen ready meals particularly affected. This is expected to result in a slight decline in overall sales in 2019, which are expected to hit £3.0 billion and 572 million kg.
A long-standing challenge for the market, the perception that ready meals/ready-to-cook foods are highly processed, remains the top barrier to consumption, followed by cost. The latter is a concern given how most retailers already offer a tiered range across a variety of prices, with the cheapest frozen meals priced at less than £1.
The market is unique in that own-label massively dominates sales and NPD, making it challenging for brands to gain a foothold. However, Charlie Bigham’s is gaining traction while health-focused brands such as Deliciously Ella have entered the market. This holds promise for the future, proving that the right proposition can justify a premium price, raising hopes that newcomers will continue to shake up the processed image of the category.
Products covered in this Report
This Report examines ready meals and ready-to-cook foods. Mintel’s market size includes products sold through the grocery retail channel including:
Chilled and frozen ready meals, including complete and part meals, and meal centres. This includes complete meals such as spaghetti Bolognese and curry with rice.
Ready-to-cook (RTC) foods are chilled food specifically positioned as needing no further preparation on the part of the consumer other than opening the packet and cooking the product according to the on-pack instructions. The major grocers have developed their own specific sub-branded ranges of such foods, such as the Sainsbury’s Just Cook range. It should be noted that some sectors of the trade use the terms ‘part prepared’ or ‘partially prepared foods’ – both terms are deemed to refer to ready-to-cook foods as defined for the purpose of this Report.
‘Pies’ that have no pastry content (for example, shepherd’s pie) and, therefore, do not conform to Mintel’s definition of a pie are included as ready meals in this Report.
