Frozen & Refrigerated
Pizza
Upper Crust
Retailers and manufacturers raise the ante on frozen pizza. By Bridget Goldschmidt
G Restaurantstyle type of selection will become a key factor in keeping households engaged with frozen pizza.” —Jannah Jablonowski, Giant Eagle
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iven that Americans eat 60 percent of the world’s pizza, according to Albuquerque, N.M.based Lavu POS — enough to blanket the city of Denver, apparently — it’s in retailers’ and manufacturers’ interest to capture as much of that action as they can. But how can supermarket frozen pizza, sales dollars of which have edged up by less than 2 percent over the past two years, per Nielsen, hope to compete with pizzeria fare? “Frozen pizza is a staple in many households, and often a convenient meal solution for our busy customers,” notes Jannah Jablonowski, spokeswoman for Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle, which operates nearly 400 retail locations in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. “At Giant Eagle, we continually strive to meet the evolving needs of our customers by ofering a wide variety of high-quality products at a great overall value.” To that end, the item “ is often included in various promotions, highlighted in our weekly circular and displayed in end cap freezers,” she explains. “In October, we executed a frozen pizza promotion in
| Progressive Grocer | Ahead of What’s Next | January 2016
which an assortment of frozen pizza oferings was available at $1, $2, $3 or $4 price points for a limited time. By including frozen pizza oferings across multiple brands and segments in this promotion, we were able to reach a number of Giant Eagle and Market District households.” Asked about emerging trends, Jablonowski addresses the need to keep consumer interest high through exciting new products: “Looking forward, we expect to see innovation across the category with more global ingredient profles, like Cuban or diavolo, and interesting crust types, like ancient grain and pencil-thin,” she says. “Tis restaurant-style type of selection will become a key factor in keeping households engaged with frozen pizza.”
‘Strong Contender’ Despite the overall category’s modest growth, Schwan Consumer Brands Inc.’s pizza oferings, led by Red Baron and the newly introduced Bon Appetit, are doing well at retail. Observes President Kevin McAdams: “Our pizza portfolio had a very strong 2014 in terms of share growth. Tis has helped us re-establish ourselves in 2015 as a