Meals & Entrées

According to the latest AFFI/IRI Power of Frozen report, prepared frozen meals and entrées sold $10.3 billion in 2020—$885 million more than 2019, with a YOY dollar growth of +9.4%. Meals and entrées made up 15.7% of all frozen food sales in 2020.

Frozen pizza accounted for $6.1 billion, which is $981 million more than 2019, for a +19% YOY dollar growth. Pizza was 9.3% of all frozen food sales in 2020. Combined, entrées and pizza sold $16.4 billion in 2020, and comprised 25% of all frozen food purchases.

Handheld entrées sold $1.19 billion in 2020, a YOY increase of +14.2%, according to NRFA/Nielsen retail statistics. Meanwhile, frozen breakfast meals increased to $508 million, up from $405 million in 2019.

Significant Events in 2020

• Tyson Foods named Dean Banks to succeed Noel White as president & CEO. The company also named Donnie King as president of Tyson’s poultry business, and from a product standpoint, Tyson updated its line of Instant Pot meal kits in response to the pandemic-driven increase in family meals at home, and the corresponding rise in cooking fatigue.
• Minnesota-based Schwan’s announced plans to expand its Salina, Kansas, frozen pizza plant by 400,000 square feet, to be completed in 2023. The company also launched five new frozen products under their Red Baron, Freschetta, Pagoda, and Edwards brands in 2020. In personnel news, Schwan’s promoted Julie Francis to COO.
• Schwan’s parent company—Korean-headquartered CJ CheilJedang—announced plans to build a new 700,000-square-foot production facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to be completed by 2025. The plant will produce frozen Asian foods, sold and distributed by Schwan’s and CJ Foods.
• Milwaukee-based Palermo Villa rolled out several new varieties of pizza under its Urban Pie, Screamin’ Sicilian, Palermo’s, Primo Thin, and Neighborhood Pizzeria lines, including hemp seed crust, rising crust, Wisconsin co-branded Leinenkugel Beer and Johnsonville Brats pies, and more.
• Chicago-based Devanco Foods was named Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ 2020 Frozen Foods Processor of the Year, for their focus on the freezercase during the pandemic, with family-friendly build-at-home meal kits.