Higher quality ingredients mean that ready meals are better positioned to compete with home-cooked and foodservice dishes, according to analyst Jonathan Thomas.
In 2015, the UK ready meals market was worth an estimated GBP3.15bn, having increased by more than 6% compared with the previous year. Growth within recent years has been sustained by the fact that time-pressed consumers continue to seek out convenient meal solutions, whilst the move towards more upmarket and premium products has contributed towards much of the rise in market value.
The UK market can be segmented into frozen and chilled products. The chilled sector is the larger of the two, worth an estimated GBP2.45bn in 2015 – this represents 78% of the overall category, with value sales having risen by 6.5% within the last year. Premium products are now thought to account for over half of this figure. The frozen sector is smaller and slightly less dynamic, having increased by around 4.5% to GBP700m during the course of 2015.
The increasing premiumization of ready meals has been one of the major growth drivers in recent years, especially now that the economic situation has improved and consumers have been more willing to pay for higher-quality products as a result. Both manufacturers and retailers have been eager to tap into this trend – in April 2016, for instance, Waitrose launched a new premium own-label range comprising over 500 products. The range, which was named Waitrose 1, includes some ready meals, and the company hopes it can achieve sales worth GBP500m in the future.
