Nomad Foods Limited, a leading European frozen food company, outlined four key trends in the food industry.

Above all, the company has a portfolio of best-in-class food brands within the frozen category, including fish, vegetables, poultry, meals, pizza and ice cream.

Its products are sold primarily through large grocery retailers under the brand name «Birds Eye» in the UK and Ireland, «Findus» in Italy, France, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Norway, «Iglo» in Germany and other continental markets. , “La Cocinera” in Spain, “Ledo” in Southeastern Europe and “Frikom” in Serbia and North Macedonia.

The majority of its products are in the salty frozen food market, where according to Nielsen, Nomad Foods’ market share in the countries where it operates was 17.9% in 2021 (2020: 18.2 percent).

For the categories in which the company operates, it holds the number one position in 16 European geographies, namely the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Austria, Norway, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia.

Nomad Foods

Consumer preferences

Consumer needs within home dining drive demand for your products.

There are a number of macro trends impacting the needs of their consumers and customers that affect Nomad Foods and the frozen food industry as a whole.

These include convenient and tasty meal necessities, including ease of meal preparation; healthy and nutritious meals; and brands that are sustainably sourced and produced and are otherwise environmentally friendly.

In 2021, 26% of European consumers were “eco-activists”, those who will make decisions based on a brand’s sustainable credential.

Nomad Foods expects this to increase to 36% by 2026 and 50% by 2029.

There is also a growing trend towards eating healthier and more nutritious meals leading to increased consumption of vegetarian and plant-based foods, resulting in 41% of UK households buying meat-free products in 2021, a increase of 9.9% in 2021, and 16.2% in Germany, with an increase of 18.2% in 2021.

Competition of Nomad Foods

In addition to the competition the company faces from well-established, traditional branded frozen food manufacturers, Nomad Foods has seen increased competition from the discount channel in recent years.

While the growth of e-commerce and online shopping has accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, Nomad Foods projects this will continue as shoppers enjoy the convenience of shopping online.

In 2021, 9.3% of consumer purchases in the retail channel were made online, 14% more than in 2020.

Shopping habits

The behaviors/attitudes of consumers in the current phase of the pandemic, of “living with Covid”, present significant opportunities in the Frozen category.

Nielsen estimates that two in three consumers will continue to be financially «strapped,» with concerns about inflation resulting in more meals at home and consumers switching to Frozen to save money.

There will continue to be high levels of home consumption, driven primarily by hybrid working, and structural changes in e-commerce channel adoption will continue.

Meanwhile, pre-Covid-19 health and sustainability trends have accelerated and are quickly becoming consumer bets.

Inflation

The world is facing unprecedented levels of market inflation, where Nomad Foods will take appropriate pricing action to cover cost inflation.

This is in line with other consumer packaged goods companies forecasting a mid-single-digit to double-digit impact on their cost base in 2022.