London, UK: Frozen food sales finished 2020 on a high, adding another £252m in sales in the last three-month period, according to the latest Kantar figures released by the British Frozen Food Federation.
The research reveals that frozen food has performed better in terms of value and volume percentage growth than any other category apart from alcohol.
The latest figures for the 12 months to 29 November show that the overall grocery market grew 11.3% in value and 9% in volume over the 52-week period. Frozen food sales have outperformed total grocery growth in both value +13.8% and volume +11.5%.
In total the frozen category has added £871m in sales value in the 52 weeks to the end of November and exceeded the fresh and chilled category in both value and volume in percentage growth.
Tesco remains the leading frozen food retailer with 23% of sales by value, slightly down year-on-year, but almost double that of the second largest retailer of frozen food Asda with 12.5%. Waitrose, M&S and Ocado all saw a small increase in their share of frozen sales in the last 12 months. Iceland showed a slight decline in share but still recorded significant value growth along with all retailers.
Richard Harrow, BFFF chief executive, said: ““Whilst this year’s performance has been driven by the changing shopping habits due to the pandemic and the return to the big weekly shop, many consumers have been converted to buying more frozen products by the long shelf-life, reduced food waste, value for money and variety of food on offer.
“Sadly, out of home has been decimated by the pandemic. Sales of frozen food are forecast to drop to £1.4bn for the year, indeed this may drop further with the recent introduction of Tier 4 restrictions.”
