Frozen meals: essential to aisle success
When the recession hit, shoppers found other meal solutions outside the frozen aisle. In fact, a decline of 1.2MM households stepped away from the Frozen Meals category during this time2 . With frozen meals being number one for the aisle, retailers were then presented with a new opportunity to re-engage buyers and re-gain incremental sales. ConAgra Foods' frozen transformation brought excitement and new users back to the aisle. In fact, the company's innovations have brought 9 million new users to the category and raised frozen meals sales by $640 million since 2008.2 Knowing that consumers are looking for better quality meal solutions that are valuable and easy to make, ConAgra Foods continues to grow frozen meals by meeting their needs with innovations and flavors that: 1.) attract new buyers, 2.) expand eating occasions and 3.) maximize base sales. Retailers who are focused on getting the right product mix and innovation in frozen meals will see increased traffic and higher basket rings — all for the good of total frozen, of course. Here are some recent examples of innovations that are bringing users back to the frozen aisle: • Steaming technology used in Healthy Choice and Marie Callender's single-serve Healthy, premium and value-oriented consumers each seek different solutions in frozen meals (see separate stories). ConAgra Foods addresses them all with Healthy Choice, Marie Callender's, Banquet and Kid Cuisine brands. 1 IRI Total U.S., all outlet consumer panel, 2010.
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Winning in frozen meals will drive overall frozen success. That's because the frozen meals category is number one when it comes to unit sales per buyer, per trip and total unit sales. It accounts for 21% of all units sold in the frozen food aisle.1 Additionally, multi- and single-serve frozen meals generate the most trips per year (11) to the frozen food aisle, with an average expenditure of $8.32 per trip.1 
