Britain gets back into the kitchen: Ready meal sales slump as shoppers use extra time at home to fill their freezers with ingredients and start cooking proper dinners
- Millions have shunned ready meals in lockdown and turned to home cooking
- Experts say Brits are more ‘time rich’ than usual so honing their cooking skills
- Sale of Greggs’ frozen pasties and sausage rolls at Iceland up over 100 per cent
Sales of ready meals have plummeted as Brits took the opportunity in lockdown to hone their culinary skills and make dinners from scratch.
Supermarket sales of frozen food soared by £194 million, while value sales of ready meals went down by some 15.4%, according to a new report today.
Brand leader Birds Eye saw sales of chicken nuggets and fish fingers surge in sales by 119% and 59% respectively in the week following school closures.
And sales of Greggs’ frozen pasties and sausage rolls in Iceland shot up over 100% on the previous year, as shoppers ‘aimed to replicate their favourite casual dining brands at home.’
Supermarket sales of frozen food soared by £194 million, while value sales of ready meals went down by some 15.4%, according to a new report
Data from analysts Nielsen showed that supermarket sales of frozen food leapt by £194.8 million – a rise of 16.1% – in the 12 weeks to April 18.
Unit sales rose by 12.4%, meaning an extra 82.2 million packs of frozen peas, fish fingers and chicken nuggets were snapped up by families across the UK.
Products associated with scratch cooking such as flour, cooking oil, frozen raw pastry, vegetables and protein have seen growth of more than 100% as ‘time rich’ people working from home or furloughed make more use of their kitchens.
Trade magazine The Grocer said: ‘Britain is entering a new ice age. Sales of frozen food shot up when lockdown was announced – and have remained high.
‘Covid-19 has been the key catalyst in the recent sales boom, of course. Supermarket freezers were, on average, just 45% full in the week before Britain went into lockdown on 23rd March as customers bought everything in sight and retailers struggled to replenish depleting stocks.
‘At some points, nearly two thirds of freezer space was left empty. ‘
As schools closed, millions of parents were forced to feed their children more at home and popular products like pizza enjoyed sales hikes of 18.1%.
Sales of Greggs’ frozen pasties and sausage rolls in Iceland shot up over 100% on the previous year
Brand leader Birds Eye saw sales of chicken nuggets and fish fingers surge in sales by 119% and 59% respectively in the week following school closures
Birds Eye UK general manager Steve Challouma said frozen food has enjoyed a 30% increase in in-house consumption.
H added: ‘It is no longer seen as a compromise. We have been driving the repositioning of frozen from a back-up food to something that is high quality, modern and relevant. It is now seen as a positive, healthy, natural and sustainable food choice.’
Iceland trading director Andrew Staniland told The Grocer: ‘Sales have remained well ahead of forecast even after the initial surge of panic buying subsided.
‘Frozen food has seen the largest and most prolonged sales growth during this time and this is an indication of customers favouring products they can store for longer.
‘Customers are choosing to cook from scratch more as they have become more time-rich than previously.’