Birds Eye owner Iglo Group is to launch a flurry of promoting initiatives geared toward changing how customers view frozen food and secure a bigger slice of the broader market from chilled, canned and fresh produce because it looks to double sales from €1.6bn (£1.3bn) in 2012 to €3.2bn (£2.7bn) in 2020.
Elio Leoni Sceti, the executive executive of the united kingdom-based manufacturer, is determined to unveil details of the “Creating better meals together’ strategy later today (18 November) in an try to make its brands more appealing to adult diners. He wants the promoting focus to shift from promoting the frozen food ingredients to meals that may be made with its products.
Innovation and sustainability will underpin the revamped strategy, consisting of creating new products and entering new categories corresponding to breakfast, desserts and snacks. Marketing teams are being bolstered to spearhead the shift. Sceti will claim the investment should turn Iglo into an “innovation machine”.
He will add: “If it isn’t large enough to modify consumer behaviour we’re not doing it.”
Iglo’s “Forever Food” sustainability programme would be promoted in future campaigns because the business looks to bring more clarity to provenance inside the wake of this year’s Horsemeat scandal.
Leoni Sceti adds: “Trust and transparency are important for all food companies. i need to shift consumer perceptions and behavior by changing the shopper view of frozen food from desperation to inspiration. We’re entering a thrilling new era for Iglo Group in order to concentrate on creating better meals together for our consumers.”
To accelerate the shift, the food business will even launch a digital hub where consumers can source recipe ideas and learn more about its new approach. Iglo have been cranking up its use of digital in recent months to capture deeper shopper data and identify more suitable how one can convert online engagement into sales.
“We should properly understand the consumers’ perspective”, adds Leoni Sceti, “They shop for meals, want great tasting food and feature gone digital. Parents have traditionally been the point of interest of our marketing, yet 75 per cent of the population don’t have childrens. We have to change our focus.”.
The company claims it has 30 per cent of the frozen market, but just 1.7 per cent of all food. “That amount is a big opportunity” and means growing top-line sales by 10 per cent a year, not “fattening” profit margins, it adds.
The announcements stem from a shake-up of the company’s €100m pan-European business plan earlier this year that led to Havas Worldwide being appointed to guide its advertising efforts. The Birds Eye owner said on the time it desired to talk about meals not convenience through advertising that turn the freezer from a “source of desperation to 1 of inspiration”.
The investment comes after Permira, which bought Iglo in 2006, did not discover a potential buyer last year willing to check its €2.8bn (£2.3bn) asking price for the business.