Innovation and NPD in Ready Meals
Trends in natural, wellbeing, artisanal and ethical meals

Business Intelligence for the Consumer Goods Industry

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Key issues examined by this report...

• The rise in organic/natural ready meals. Natural food is becoming a growing trend in the ready meals market. People want healthy food and have become concerned about artificial ingredients such as preservatives, artificial flavors and colors.
• The rise in ‘homemade’ ready meals. There is a strong desire to reintegrate the family dinner and increase cooking activity. This desire is coming from government bodies and schools but also from the families themselves who want the nostalgia of h omemade dishes. Ready meals manufacturers have a role to play in developing meals which give people the feeling they have cooked a homemade dish, even though it may not be from scratch.
• The domination of retailers. Retailers have been very active in the development of a variety of premium ready meals in the chilled category. Thus, in order to compete with private label, the big industry players will have to innovate in NPD and advertising in categories where the retailers have less presence, such as frozen and canned ready meals.

Innovation and NPD in Ready Meals
Trends in natural, wellbeing, artisanal and ethical meals

There are new trends driving the ready meals market forward in 2008. Consumers are regaining a sense of heritage which is driving demand for traditional national recipes. Manufacturers are developing ready meals that are making it more convenient for consumers to develop ‘homemade’ style food, involving the use of fresh and local ingredients. The demand for freshness overlaps with trends in healthy ready meals, which remains an important and growing sector. Future trends in health include natural, functional, satiety enhancing and low GI ingredients.
Innovation and NPD in Ready Meals is a new management report that analyzes the key trends in the ready meals market and forecasts future growth and opportunities. The report breaks down opportunities in the ready meals sector by region and category to provide a unique insight into the factors shaping the market now and in the future. Anticipate future changes in the ready meals market and make the right decisions in terms of new product development and marketing strategies with this new report...

This new report will enable you to...
• Predict future market growth levels with this report's analysis of key drivers of the ready meals market detailing changes in demographics, meal-time behavior and regulation.
• Anticipate the impact of key trends in the ready meals market and quantify new and emerging opportunities using current and forecasted market value and volume data to 2010 across 7 European countries and the US, detailing the size and growth of the canned, chilled, dried and frozen ready meals markets.
• Improve targeting and the effectiveness of your NPD strategies with this report’s analysis of Productscan data of over 6,000 ready meal products launched between 2004 and 2007. Analysis was conducted to determine the key innovations in terms of formulation, packaging, shelving type and product labelling.
• Benchmark leading executives’ opinions on the future of ready meals using this report’s analysis of our global consumer survey, providing exclusive insight into consumer behavior, key drivers of the ready meals market and future trends.

Your questions answered...
• How should ready meals manufacturers position their products to reflect the changing demands of consumers?
• What should ready meals new product development strategies focus on?
• Which ready meals categories and count ries will grow fastest to 2010?
• Who are the companies who lead NPD in ready meals?
• What are the key trends in ready meals NPD?

Some key findings from this report...
• Of all ready meals products launched between 2004 and 2007, 2% were innovative. Of those innovative ready meal products, 71% were innovative in terms of formu lation and 13% were innovative in terms of pac kaging benefit. Innovation in formulation consists of using unusual combinations of flavors and ingredients and also use of ingredients with health benefits.
• The ready meals market across Europe and the US has grown steadily in recent years. In 2006, the combined European and US market was worth $36.4bn. However, by 2010 it is expected to grow to the value of $41.7bn.
• 39.1% of industry executives think that healthy, ‘better-for-you’ variants will be the most important feature for the success of a ready meal product over the next 5 years. 28.3% think that greater convenience in ready meals will provide the biggest growth for manufacturers.
• Frozen ready meals take the largest share of the ready meals market, accounting for about 50% of ready meals sales in both Europe and the US in 2006.