Red Baron thin crust pizzas capitalize on an underdeveloped niche in the frozen pizza category.

Tony's Pizza For One capitalizes on the consumer trend for convenient products.

The frozen pizza category continued its sales growth by posting increases in both unit and dollar sales for the 52-week period ended April 17. IRI statistics, which measure scanner data in supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchandisers excluding Wal-Mart, report frozen pizza dollar sales increased 2.3% to $2.62 billion and unit sales rose 1.2% to 996 million for that period.

Driving this growth is innovation that constantly changes the look of the frozen pizza case. For example, three years ago the frozen case was full of self-rising crusts that promised a restaurant-style eating experience. Today, these thick crusts are joined in the frozen case by thin crust pizzas. "There is a growing consumer demand for thin crust pizzas, and frozen thin crust is underdeveloped compared to restaurant pizza," Darci Eckermann, The Schwan Food Co.'s director of marketing services, says.

The company launched Red Baron® Thin Crust Pizza to capitalize on this market deficiency. This pizza is available in six different varieties: Ultimate Pepperoni; Five Cheese; Italian Sausage & Pepperoni; Meat Trio; Mozzarella, Tomato & Basil; and Supreme.

Kraft Foods Inc., Northfield, Ill., also launched a line of thin crust pizzas under the DiGiorno brand name in the following flavors: four meat; pepperoni; supreme; and grilled chicken, tomato and spinach.

Thin crust pizzas represent only one change to the frozen pizza aisle in the last year. Other new products that stress convenience and quality have flooded the marketplace. Convenience remains a driving factor in the frozen pizza category, as evidenced by the growth of single-serve traditional and French bread pizzas.

"Convenience continues to play a large role in today's pizza market Eckermann says. "Families continue to lead busy lives and they want great tasting, convenient food that fits their lifestyles."

The Schwan Food Co. produces many convenient products, including Red Baron® French Bread pizzas and Tony's Pizza For One, which is a microwaveable snack-size pizza. Microwaveable pizzas are a booming segment in the frozen pizza category, and many bakeries are spending time and money to improve the quality of these products.

Kraft Foods' DiGiorno brand launched a frozen pizza that rises and bakes in the microwave. This innovative offering reduces the popular brand's bake time to five minutes and is available in eight varieties. The company expects its microwaveable pizzas to record more than $75 million in 2005 revenue.

Canadian pizza manufacturer Donini Inc. also is looking into microwaveable pizzas, and recently began test marketing a microwaveable product. According to Peter Deros, Donini's president and chief executive officer, customer satisfaction for the microwaveable pizza is very high. The company plans to commercially launch the product this summer.

Pizza manufacturers' constant innovation has led to positive sales for the category. And, the introduction of new products continues to renew interest in this category. •

 

Top 10 Frozen pizza brands
Brands	Dollar Sales	% Change	Dollar Share	Unit sales	% Change	Unit Share
DiGiorno	$520,204,960	12.8%	19.8%	101,928,928	15.3%	10.2%
Tombstone	$275, 975,840	-3.1%	10.5%	81,382,680	-2.9%	8.2%
Red Baron	$243,324,272	1.3%	9.3%	74,987,016	-1.0%	7.5%
Freschetta	$185,699,648	-5.8%	7.1%	36,951,952	-8.2%	3.7%
Private label	$180,704,304	3.5%	6.9%	102,465,384	-1.1%	10.3%
Totino's Party Pizza	$158,574,032	-5.2%	6.1%	138,559,088	-2.4%	13.9%
Tony's	$148,966,992	-2.3%	5.7%	56,962,000	-3.7%	5.7%
Stouffer's	$92,818,616	0.4%	3.5%	33,592,816	2.4%	3.4%
Jack's Original	$90,775,728	-1.1%	3.5%	34,728,624	-1.8%	3.5%
Celeste Pizza for One	$65,26,784	-2.3%	2.5%	53,570,980	-1.9%	5.4%
Source: Information Resources Inc. statistics for the 52-week period ended April 17, excluding Wal-Mart

 

brands and top 10 pizza vendors, go to
the Supermarket Basket Spotlight Feature
on www.bakery-net.com.

 

Fresh Bakery Products	52 Weeks Ending April l17 Dollar Sales	% Change Prior Year	52-weeks Unit Sales	% Change Prior Year
Bread	$5,825,733,376	1.3%	3,372,551,552	-3.1%
Cookies	$3,539,501,184	-3.0%	1,647,436,160	-4.2%
Crackers	$3,174,098,432	0.2%	1,450,633,984	-0.7%
Rolls/Buns/Croissants	$1,789,707,520	0.8%	1,197,305,472	-2.1%
Cupcakes/Brownies	$797,311,552	-0.6%	575,017,408	-4.2%
Donuts	$767,567,104	-0.2%	329,366,592	-4.3%
Pastry/Danish/Coffeecake	$619,703,168	-2.2%	305,821,856	-4.1%
Cakes (excl. snack/coffee cakes)	$596,237,440	1.4%	129,577,416	-0.3%
Bagels/Bialys	$437,006,976	3.8%	172,648,272	0.7%
English Muffins	$394,702,752	3.6%	192,505,184	0.0%
Muffins	$218,525,248	1.5%	85,300,584	2.0%
Pies (excel. snack pies)	$193,478,944	2.1%	49,536,148	2.3%
Source: Information Resources Inc.

 

Frozen Bakery Products
Baked Bread/Rolls/Biscuits	$453,998,880	2.9%	189,669,856	1.5%
Pies	$330,926,272	3.0%	89,126,056	5.6%
Sweetgoods (excl. cheesecake)	$311,959,840	0.3%	114,956,592	-0.1%
Bread/Rolls/Biscuits/Pastry Dough	$122,069,472	-6.2%	45,362,792	-7.5%
Pies/Pastry Shells	$107,506,120	-3.6%	53,620,672	-6.3%
Cheesecakes	$81,950,912	-4.6%	17,880,626	-9.2%
Bagels	$60,251,960	-14.2	46,538,600	-16.6%
Cookie Dough	$5,316,842	9.8%	1,177,529	-0.3%
Muffins	$4,123,828	-13.5%	1,955,877	-16.0%
Cookies	$26,691	$-65.3%	7,461	-65.4%
Source: Information Resources Inc.

 

Refrigerated Bakery Products
Cookie/Brownie Dough	$419,483,136	4.3%	150,092,192	-0.5%
Biscuit Dough	$377,090,432	-5.5%	337,468,160	-6.7%
Pastry/Dumpling Dough	$255,291,040	2.1%	119,748,488	-0.6%
Bread/Roll/Bun Dough	$234,861,104	-0.8%	122,851,856	-0.5%
Cheesecakes	$96,062,384	4.9%	17,191,546	-0.2%
Cakes (excl. snack/coffeecakes)	$60,392,608	-5.2%	7,526,584	-7.5%
Bagels/Bialys	$57,835,460	-18.8%	42,894,760	-15.6%
English Muffins	$28,011,590	0.8%	17,068,992	-3.7%
Pies (excl. snack pies)	$27,074,498	-18.2%	5,463,755	-25.2%
Bread	$5,265,735	-8.6%	2,527,963	-13.4%
Snack Cakes/Donuts	$5,091,015	-20.8%	1,404,513	-31.9%
Pastry/Danish/Coffeecakes	$4,281,190	-8.2%	1,445,556	-18.3%
Croissants/Dinner Rolls	$1,379,172	66.1%	521,397	34.4%
Muffins	$35,562	-13.1%	9,174	-28.2%
Source: Information Resources Inc.

Statistics for this chart were supplied by Information Resources Inc., a Chicago-based firm. Its scanner data covers more than 11,300 supermarkets and represents 90% of all supermarket volumes.