More supermarket operators are offering more restaurant branded products (RBPs) and...consumers are buying. In stores around the country, most supermarket chains and independents are offering over 100 RBPs in as many as 15 separate grocery departments—more than ten times the number of SKUs of five years ago.
Frozen meals may be the consumers' and retailers' solution to the home meal replacement (HMR) issues of the past. However, in the past ten years, retailers have staged many expensive, false starts targeting the meal replacement category. Recent developments with frozen meals (already a six billion dollar business) deserve a sharp analysis before jumping to market. Despite obvious shifts in brand and merchandising strategies, the same nagging questions remain. Can frozen prepared meals capture a larger share of the convenience meal segment in the future? Or...will the trend to offer restaurant branded, frozen meals simply pass as another round of expensive HMR market testing?