Handy and healthy

While almost every other food category has cashed in on health trends, consumers have taken a little more persuasion to latch on to the idea that ready meals may actually be good for them.

The £1.9bn ready meals market is part of the UK prepared foods sector and can be divided into chilled and frozen ready meals. The £700-£800M frozen sector is stagnating, despite Birds Eye's efforts to promote the sector with a £21M marketing and promotional programme last year. Tryton Foods and McCain have also stepped up their marketing activities in an attempt to muster support for the frozen category.

Conversely, the chilled ready meals market is growing by 6-7% year-on-year and is valued at £1.5bn. Over the last 12-18 months this growth has been spearheaded by traditional British meals and the sub-category is now valued at an estimated £350M.

Health has also played an important role in the development of the chilled ready meals sector for some years but the category has never really taken off. Traditionally consumers have turned to diet brands to indulge their appetite for healthy foods, but Weight Watchers is the only one to have gained sufficient consumer support to evolve into a £20M brand. The remaining, predominantly own-label brands, haven't received the same level of interest.

Greencore prepared ready meals marketing manager, Michael Evans says: "Healthy ready meals had been in slight decline because own-label hasn't fulfilled consumers' expectations on taste. The key to Weight Watchers' success is our ongoing consumer research that keeps us on top of consumers' needs. The challenge is always to produce products that fulfil these needs.

"However, since January the healthy market in general has started to grow again. The reason for this is the development of 'naturally balanced' retail brands that contain raw vegetables."

Marks & Spencer (M&S) pre-empted the market for natural, fresh meals 18 months ago with the launch of Eat Well. Since then Sainsbury has launched Supernaturally and health club brand Champneys; Tesco the Naturally Balanced and Naturally Good Food brands; Morrisons Eat Smart and Waitrose Contemporary Convenience - all of which satisfy consumer demand for healthy food.

Northern Foods marketing controller for ready meals Nick Hill says: "The new healthy trend is starting to shatter long held misconceptions about ready meals being unhealthy and full of preservatives and additives. Chilled ready meals are about delivering quality and passing the taste test. Consumers are looking for natural ingredients with decent portion sizes. Five-a-day is firmly embedded in their minds."

Convenience is integral to the success of ready meals, but the emergence of premium ready-to-cook options has encouraged consumers to spend more time on preparation and to develop an appreciation for raw ingredients.

More significant is consumer concern over levels of salt, fat and sugar in ready meals, which has sparked interest in additive and preservative free products. Tesco has introduced a 'kitchen cupboard guarantee' (that all product ingredients can be found in a typical kitchen cupboard) and in 2005 M&S began the process of removing hydrogenated fats from its ready meals range. Meanwhile most major manufacturers have programmes in place aimed at reducing 'bad' ingredients and packaging labels have become more transparent.

Hill says: "The health category is all about communicating positive messages. It's about building trust. It's not simply about showing guideline daily amounts either; it is important to signpost key messages, such as 'additive free', on packs - this is where growth has come from in the last nine months. No-preservative and no-colour flags are starting to resonate with consumers."

Michael Evans at Greencore adds: "Weight Watchers chilled ready meals are produced under strict guidelines. The brand has garnered a lot of trust among consumers and it has very healthy credentials. Consumer perception is everything. Greencore also has a corporate healthy message that includes reducing salt levels."

The signs indicate that over the next decade chilled ready meals will see consistent growth. Mintel predicts the market will have grown by around 37% from 2006 levels by 2011 to reach a value of £2bn, at current prices. Frozen ready meals are likely to remain in the shadows for the time being, however it is a brand-dominated sector and has the financial leverage necessary to force its way out of the doldrums and win back consumer support - and it's simply a matter of time before this happens.

Ready meals are child's play

Innovation within children's ready meals mirrors those of the mainstream market, with health at the heart of new product development. Last year, Sainsbury replaced its Blue Parrot Café chilled ready meals brand with Sainsbury's Kids in a bid to shake off negative perceptions of the brand and to offer smaller portion sizes. Similarly, Asda launched its Great Stuff range, with controlled salt and fat levels and no artificial colours or preservatives, and Tesco Kids was reformulated to ensure each product contained an additional health benefit that could be flagged up on-pack.

The children's market is worth around £13M so it represents a small part of the total market (about 1%). Nevertheless, it is growing by 34% year-on-year.

Author and children's nutrition expert Annabel Karmel launched a range of healthy children's meals in January called Eat Fussy. As the name suggests, recipes are aimed at fussy eaters aged between one and four years and contain 'hidden' ingredients that are usually scorned by the age group.

Karmel believes she has come up with the right combination to please parents and their offspring: meals that contain 100% natural, locally sourced ingredients. She says: "Parents care about what their children are eating. They look at the labels, are well aware of the issues from media coverage and they realise their children aren't getting enough 'good stuff' in their diets.

"Supermarket brands have so far failed to deliver taste and quality. It is difficult to develop children's meals that are tasty - particularly for this age group - because there are lots of strict regulations and every ingredient needs to be tested to ensure it comes up to standard."

Eat Fussy is available at Sainsbury and through Waitrose's online service, Ocado, and expansion is looming. Karmel is planning launches with other multiples and is seeking partnerships in order to extend the brand. "There is a massive potential for growth because this market is relatively untapped. I plan to launch new recipes this September and develop a complementary range of desserts, pasta sauces and snack products. I also want to launch a more sophisticated range of meals for older children."

Miniscoff is also targeting this niche market, but it has yet to make its mark on the retail platform. Launched four years ago, the Miniscoff brand predominantly supplies the foodservice industry with frozen ready meals for children made from locally-sourced organic ingredients.

Owner and co-director Angus Alisent explains that starting out in foodservice has helped the brand to develop its volume and the company is in a better position to attack the retail market. "We already supply 20-30 independent retailers and farm shops, but we don't have a great grip on this channel yet. It's a harsh environment in the retail sector.

"This summer our meals will launch through a major online retailer, which will help to raise our profile and then we'll take it from there."

Alisent explains that Miniscoff's product is aimed at consumers who are not traditional ready-meal customers. "This is a huge obstacle to growth in the retail environment and it is one that the supermarkets themselves are struggling with. It's a long learning and educational curve," he says.

However, Miniscoff is clearly doing something right. The brand grew 35% last year and 50% the previous year and Alisent aims to increase turnover to £4M by 2010 - eight times greater than it is now.

However, he is also realistic about the brand's prospects.

"Our focus is on producing the very best meals in small batches and meeting our ethical principles. This may cap our size but we want to concentrate on the top 5% of the market and then develop further by producing complementary items such as snack products, which will provide us with ample opportunity to grow our business.

"It's a question of finding the right partners to work with." FM