Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - October 2012 - (Page 27)

frozen produce is as nutritious or even more nutritious than fresh produce. Challenges aside, Nestle and ConAgra remain the top producers of frozen meals, but their frozen meal sales were down in 2011-12, according to Mintel. Overall, Mintel said Nestle has about a 34% market share and ConAgra has a 26% share. During the year, Nestle introduced new Stouffer’s family varieties, Stouffer’s Farmers’ Harvest Steam meals, Hot Pockets brand Snackers, Lean Cui- sine Culinary Chic offerings, and Lean Pockets Pretzel Bread Sandwiches. Store brands do not appear to be cutting into share much. Mintel said value-based store brands only represent 3% of frozen meal sales, in part due to lack of innovation. “We’re really not concerned too much about the store brand side of that because we’ve got such a strong frozen infrastructure, our scale and our productivity,” ConAgra’s Mr. Rodkin said in a conference call. “What we’ve been able to do in terms of driving costs down in terms of the way we produce product, we believe it would be very difﬁcult to signiﬁcantly undercut a brand like Banquet, so we really don’t believe that’s a signiﬁcant issue.” Other recently introduced ConAgra products include Healthy Choice and Marie Callender’s Bakes, Healthy Choice Greek Frozen Yogurt and Marie Callender’s single-serve cream pies. In addition, ConAgra is rolling out a new line of Healthy Choice Baked Entrees to appeal to the desire for classic comfort foods. CP LEADING FROZEN HANDHELD LEADING FROZEN HANDHELD % change from year ago -10.0% 1.5% 8.3% 1.9% -0.7% 26.7% 4.1% 17.2% -3.0% 19.5% -1.0% entrees vendors 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Nestle USA, Inc. Ruiz Food Products, Inc. Hillshire Brands White Castle System, Inc. Foster Poultry Farms J.M. Smucker Co. Camino Real Foods, Inc. Amy’s Kitchen, Inc. Windsor Foods, Inc Private label Total Dollar sales $576,902,100 $117,079,600 $75,031,110 $69,380,580 $67,839,440 $57,839,080 $45,328,050 $40,870,530 $39,611,740 $51,944,870 $1,382,681,000 entrees brands 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Hot Pockets Lean Pockets El Monterey State Fair White Castle Foster Farms Smucker’s Uncrustables Amy’s Jose Ole Private label Total Dollar sales $347,691,000 $119,214,700 $115,580,500 $70,694,430 $69,380,580 $67,780,220 $57,839,080 $39,812,540 $32,503,080 $51,944,870 $1,382,681,000 % change from year ago 3.6% -8.6% 5.9% 8.5% 1.9% -0.5% 26.7% 15.5% -5.5% 19.5% -1.0% Data for 52 weeks ended Aug. 12, 2012 Total U.S. - Supermarkets, Drugstores and Mass Merchandisers excluding Wal-Mart Source: SymphonyIRI Soup Category only lukewarm and looking for innovation D espite the fact it has faced weakness in soup recently, Campbell Soup Co.’s soup sales were still responsible for the overall soup category’s modest performance in 2011, according to Mintel. Overall soup category sales were at $6.4 billion in 2011 with a compound annual growth rate of just 1% between 2006 and 2011, according to Mintel. “Long term, the category is expected to bounce back as the economy improves and as brands and market segments innovate and reinvent their products; such efforts already have begun to happen to some extent,” Mintel said in a report on the topic. “Mintel expects the market to reach $7.2 billion in sales in current dollars by Corporate Proﬁles Milling & Baking News • Food Business News • Baking & Snack • Meat & Poultry October 2012 / 27

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - October 2012

Milling & Baking News Corporate Profiles - October 2012