A new report by the British Frozen Food Federation reveals that the value of frozen food sold in the UK stores is now worth GBP7.21bn, with a year-on-year growth of 13.8%. Richard Harrow, CEO of BFFF, talks about this and offers an overview of the British frozen food market in this exclusive interview.
By Bogdan Angheluta, Web&Digital Editor
What is the most important finding of BFFF’s report?
I think the most important finding of BFFF’s report is the fact that consumers have fallen in love with frozen food again. People are shopping less frequently, but buying bigger amounts when they do shop. You can see that people want to buy products that will not go to waste, and I think that’s why they’re switching more and more to frozen foods. In 2020, our category performed the grocery category.
Are younger generations more attracted to frozen food?
If you are from an older generation, you probably think of frozen foods just being fish fingers, peas, and chips. The range of products is actually very wide, there’s a lot of premium products, and the Millennials have a much more open attitude to buying across the category. If they find something good, they will continue to buy it. I also think this generation is very aware of the issue of food wastage, they want to try and do their bit to help, and we see the way communication around food wastage changes – from the impact on your wallet to the impact on the globe. People will make small changes to their daily lives to help the environment. The meat-free movement is mostly driven by the belief, by the understanding of that generation that reducing meat consumption actually helps the environment.
In the report, you point out that more than half of consumers say they are unlikely to shop the way they used to before the pandemic. Do you think this is connected to the idea that more and more people started cooking at home?
I think it could well be, although we don’t know what will happen when foodservice returns to normal. At the moment people have no option and are cooking at home, but when foodservice market reopens I’m sure they will start going out again.
Which frozen food segments are most likely to keep increasing this year, in terms of sales?
I think you’ll still see segments like frozen vegetables going strong, they’ve had a very strong period of sustained growth. Ice-cream should also profit and people remain at home. Also fish, as people look at more healthy options regarding their food.
2020 was the first time that frozen food sales went over the GBP7bn mark; what are your expectations for this year?
We’re bound to see some decline in retail, but we also expect to see growth in the foodservice. I don’t think we are going to lose the growth, I think we will retain some of it as a lot of people that were new to the category realized that actually, frozen food is a good option for them.
On to Brexit: Are there currently any issues regarding the transition of frozen foods between the UK and the EU?
We’re not hearing of any problems regarding products coming from the EU into the UK, that all seems to be going ok at the moment, mainly because we have limited checks at the moment. We do have concerns about how well prepared some of the EU trade partners are, for when we do introduce additional checks on April 1.