Corporate Profiles - 2024 - 24

GRAIN-BASED FOODS
Packaged Foods
Sales trend downward in frozen foods, soups
C
ompanies have struggled in several categories this year, with
sales slipping in frozen foods and soups. Sales have been
down in three top categories: frozen food, ready-to-serve
soup and condensed soup. Frozen pizza, however, scored gains.
Single-serve frozen dinners and entrees dollar sales at US retail
were down 4.7% in the 52-week period ended July 14 when compared
to the previous 52 weeks, according to Circana, a Chicagobased
market research firm.
Ready-to-serve soup dollar sales were down 5.9%, and condensed
soup dollar sales were down 4.3%. Frozen pizza, however,
was up 0.7%.
B&G Foods, Inc. expects to scale back its presence in the frozen
food aisle. The company placed its frozen and canned vegetable
businesses under strategic review and is evaluating a possible divestiture
of some or all the assets, either in a single transaction or a
series of transactions.
" Green Giant remains a strong brand with broad awareness and
distribution, and the frozen vegetables category is on trend with
health and dietary trends, " said Casey Keller, president and chief executive
officer, when B&G Foods gave first-quarter financial results
May 8. " However, I believe the frozen vegetable business may not
be the right fit with B&G Foods' focus and capabilities, particularly
since we have no plans to add more assets in the frozen portfolio
given the opportunities in our core shelf-stable businesses and overall
capital constraints. "
B&G Foods in 2015 acquired the Green Giant and Le Sueur
brands of frozen and canned vegetables from General Mills, Inc. for
about $765 million in cash. Recent B&G Foods' divestitures include
the Green Giant US canned vegetable business in November 2023
and Back to Nature in January 2023.
" Frozen is not an area where I see us spending our capital or
building scale, " Keller said. " Right now, our economics are subscale.
The margin on our frozen vegetable business unit as we reported in
segment reports results is about a third of the margin of the rest of
our business. So, I don't think it's a place that we should spend our
time and energy. I don't think that's a business that we can necessarily
succeed in the long term. "
Like many companies in the frozen foods category, Conagra
Brands, Inc. experienced sales decreases. In single-serve frozen dinners/entrees,
company sales dropped 5% in the 52-week period
ended July 14, according to Circana.
Conagra's Future of Frozen Food 2024 study released early in the
year uncovered some emerging frozen food trends. The report examined
how the $78 billion United States frozen food market may evolve.
24 \ October 2024
LEADING SINGLE-SERVE FROZEN
dinner/entree vendors
% change
from
Dollar sales
1 Conagra Brands, Inc.
2 Nestle USA, Inc.
3 Amy's Kitchen, Inc.
4 Bellisio Foods
5 Kraft Heinz Co.
6 InnovAsian Cuisine Enterprises, Inc.
7 Ajinomoto Foods North America
8 Zatarain's
9 Golden West Food Group
Private label
Total
LEADING SINGLE-SERVE FROZEN
dinner/entree brands
% change
from
Dollar sales
1 Stouffer's
2 Healthy Choice
3 Marie Callender's
4 Lean Cuisine
5 Banquet
6 Amy's
7 Hungry-Man
8 InnovAsian
9 Michelina's
10 Tai Pei
Total
$1,028,736,675
$718,473,556
$663,433,127
$536,223,639
$438,211,371
$404,678,883
$213,483,679
$162,648,552
$153,061,611
$130,935,045
$5,869,898,151
year ago
-5.5%
-4.9%
-4.0%
-6.9%
-3.5%
1.7%
-13.6%
-3.3%
-20.2%
1.6%
-4.7%
Data for 52 weeks ended July 14, 2024
Total US - Multi-outlet with C-Store (Supermarkets, Drugstores and Mass Market Retailers,
Gas/C-Stores, Military Commissaries and Select Club & Dollar Retail Chains)
Source: Circana OmniMarket Integrated Fresh
$2,251,982,456
$1,583,404,280
$404,678,883
$296,116,727
$244,938,388
$163,258,694
$131,054,252
$75,443,689
$72,155,691
$122,359,529
$5,869,898,151
year ago
-5.0%
-6.9%
1.7%
-19.6%
-4.0%
-2.9%
1.3%
2.6%
444.8%
-4.7%
-4.7%
The Future of Frozen Food 2024 report included insights from
Conagra Brands, sales data from NielsenIQ, and in-home consumption
behaviors from Circana's National Eating Trends along with social
media trend predictors from Black Swan Data to identify trends
in the US frozen food category.
The trends included globally inspired flavors, evolving use of
kitchen appliances and a surge in breakfast foods.
" The frozen food industry, which began with our own Clarence
Birdseye over a century ago, will continue to evolve with product
innovation, flavor experimentation and changes to how and when
people want to enjoy frozen food, " said Bob Nolan, senior vice
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Corporate Profiles
INDUSTRY REVIEW: packaged foods
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Corporate Profiles - 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Corporate Profiles - 2024