Meal solutions – they offer huge sales potential, but only if the food industry can satisfy consumers’ insatiable appetite for convenience and inspiration, argues Sue Barnard.
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These were some of the views expressed by speakers at a recent IGD conference in London. To the industry’s advantage, consumers’ views of the category are becoming more streamlined. Research by IGD in 2001 found that consumers categorised meal solutions in four ways – meals that were ready to…:
- Make;
- Prepare;
- Heat or;
- Eat.
One year on, consumers had honed their perceptions. The first two categories are now considered to be meal solution ‘creations’ (involving more input), with the latter two becoming meal solution ‘takeaways’.
It was the meal solution takeaways that were fuelling interest at the conference, especially in the light of UK supermarkets’ recent attempts to muscle in on this market. Safeway is already delivering pizza from selected stores, although the group is keeping mum on whether it plans to extend this service to other meal types.
Battle for share of stomach
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By GlobalData
Just how seriously the grocery trade should be taking this market was reflected by Asda’s category development manager for home meal replacements Linsey Wright. She states that 52% of all food consumed in the UK is supplied by the supermarkets – a level which is rising 8% annually.
However, it is the remaining 48% supplied by other sources that should be of concern. This is escalating 42% year on year. Wright said: “The supermarkets’ share is going to be in the minority within a few years unless we do something about this. Asda no longer thinks in terms of share of trade, but share of stomach.” Home meal replacements, she considers, can play a major part in winning this battle. She said: “We must invest in this market and move it on.”
So how can that be done? Pat Reeves, director of Deliverance, an upmarket home-delivered meals provider working in the London area, considers it won’t be long before supermarkets move into the meals delivery business. He told delegates: “The supermarkets are competing on quality, whether that is product or service. To gain the edge they are now turning to hot food, with some reporting phenomenal sales. It is feasible that in their striving to give customers greater choice and convenience they will turn to delivering the hot food that is already available in their stores. But the question is, from an operational point of view, does it makes sense to do this?”
Reeves’s experience since setting up Deliverance in 1997 has shown that delivering good quality, hot, home delivered food is operationally complex. He said: “It has taken five years to develop our business and there are always a lot of new skills to learn. Companies need a lot of space to set up a delivery operation and they have to ensure that when a product leaves the site the quality is at least as good as Tesco’s Finest standards.”
He believes that a supermarket branding could work successfully, but warns: “Do it right and there is a huge opportunity. Do it wrong and both supermarket and suppliers will look foolish. If so, it will be a disaster.”
Building on foodservice staples
But what should the culinary delights comprise? Asda’s Wright urged the trade to reference from the foodservice sector. While Indian and Chinese cuisines are well established with consumers, others may prove more risky. She said: “Look at the emerging restaurant trade, but beware. Consumers need a point of reference. If there are no Tex-Mex restaurants it is going to be a lot harder for customers to understand the concept.”
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Reeves considers that the Thai food market offers a lot of potential. He said: “The consumer demand for Thai food is not being dealt with by the supermarkets. It’s an area that suppliers would be wise to look at and doesn’t present technical difficulties.”
Just how long a slog can be expected was indicated by Sainsbury’s concept development manager Katherine Lewis. The retailer has launched five Thai lines and considers that it will take two years to establish the sector.
Packaging innovation
Some speakers saw potential in driving the meal solutions category through packaging innovation. With the developments in self-heating meals and beverages, they felt sure the self-heating plate would be next on the horizon. If so, it could satisfy the 22% of consumers identified in IGD’s Consumer Watch 2002 survey that rated meal solutions that did not create much, if any, washing up, as being the most convenient.
This came second to those meal solutions that ‘just needed heating in an oven or microwave’. But even those concepts would need to be high-speed solutions. Wright reported that taking seven minutes to microwave a frozen ready meal was seen as inconvenient. From oven to table in three minutes was now more desirable.
The need to minimise time was also having an impact in store. The ‘create your own pizza topping’ concept, whilst once popular, is now proving less so. Today’s shoppers, it seems, just want to get into store and out again as quickly as possible. It could be that home delivery, from a brand consumers buy into every week, may be just the meal solution they are hungry for.
By Sue Barnard, just-food.com correspondent
