New convenience meals arrive in store.
Cooking fatigue, meet your delicious solution.
Jess’s Underground Kitchen produces premium, frozen ready-toeat meals, with their range of Gourmet Everyday™ and EVERYDAY PROTEIN™ meals available in supermarket freezers nationwide. Thanks to a focus on high-quality ingredients and bold flavours, it’s not surprising that these meals are so well received by buyers and consumers alike.
Most recently, select Foodstuffs stores are seeing a roll-out of Jess’s new Premium meal range with single, double and family-sized meals, to cater for all households. Perennial favourites like Beef & Mozzarella Lasagne, Smoked Fish Pie and Cherry Berry Crumble are among the top sellers.
Handmade in small batches by a team of real chefs in Auckland, Jess picks only the freshest ingredients to use in the meals, with a mix of traditional and contemporary flavours. With an increasing demand from consumers for convenience and quality, there is no doubt that the ready-meal category is growing and Jess’s gourmet meals bring a new, contemporary audience to the freezer aisle.
Jess’s Underground Kitchen has been operating in the ready-meal market since 2013 when founder Jess Daniell realised there was a gap in the market for fresh and healthy convenience food. With a direct-toconsumer meal delivery model operating online to complement the FMCG channel, her range of meals taste and feel like they’ve been created in the home kitchen – all of the comforts without any of the hassle.
To enquire about stocking Jess’s Underground Kitchen meals, please contact Peter Cleland, National Account Manager (KML) on peter.cleland@kml.net.nz. www.juk.co.nz
Bringing Mexican taste and quality to frozen convenience food
Melissa and Jason Philips, the Co-Founders of the Cartel Food Company, created their range of frozen Mexican food because they saw a gap in the frozen food section of the supermarket.
“There was plenty of convenient frozen food, but nothing that tasted good and certainly nothing in the Mexican space,” says Melissa. “After months of research, which consisted of hanging out in the frozen section of the supermarket observing buyer behaviour, reviewing and tasting the categories offerings, we determined that a premiumisation of the category was evident. The likes of pies and sausage rolls were all starting to have a better quality alternative. Also Jason had lived in Southern California as a teenager where a frozen burrito was a go-to snack.
“We saw there was nothing like that here. So we decided to make a range of frozen burritos,” says Melissa. These have proven popular and are stocked at all supermarkets nationwide.
Nine years since the company’s inception they have now launched their NEW Enchilada bakes. They are core ranged in Foodstuffs North Island PAK’nSAVE and New World stores and can be found in the meal section of the freezer.
“We are currently working on selling to South Island Foodstuffs stores and planning to be nationwide across all major supermarkets by the end of the year,” says Melissa. To become a stockist contact: info@cartelfood.com Ph 021 150 7389 www.cartelfood.com
What’s new at Woolworths NZ?
“We know that convenience is important to many of our customers,” says the Woolworths NZ team.
“To ensure we meet the needs and demands of customers we have put a lot of work into bringing new products to the market. We’re excited to have launched over 60 new products just recently. All our products adhere to our strict nutrition guidelines; are taste tested to perfection; given that extra little bit of Woolworths love, care and attention and contain no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. Having a dietitian involved ensured each product met nutrient targets set by external guidelines, and that high fat and salt products did not hit the shelves.”
The team says some of the new product highlights include:
• 34 New Crumbed and COOK convenience products launched
• A complete re-launch of their soup range with 15 products
• 9 New pasta and gnocchi products launched.
Cook, simmer and serve with Waitoa
The need for convenience is increasing, but Kiwis don’t want to miss out on the benefits you can get from home cooking and baking.
That’s why Waitoa Free Range Chicken is bringing to the table innovation that solves the mid-week meal decision.
Each meal takes only 15 minutes to create, saving meal preparation time for consumers. The product comes with pre-diced chicken and a flavour disc leaving the simple task of adding coconut milk, or milk to create a convenient, delicious meal.
The Flavour Kits are available in two tasty flavours; Thai Green Chicken Curry and Creamy Pepper Chicken.
“The Waitoa Flavour Kits are a new concept for the Fresh Chicken Category, providing shopper inspiration and growth,” explains Ben Ward, Marketing Manager.
“Ready to cook and ready to heat (meal solution) categories have seen great unit growth over the last 12 months. (Frozen meals +12%, Meal fixes +4.9%, Ready to go meals +19%) (IRI 2023 State of the Industry Report – Grocery). Consumers have a
strong willingness to pay for convenience. It’s clear that ready-to-cook meals are a profitable long-term strategy for retailers.
“Waitoa will have a significant marketing campaign backing the product launch with radio, billboards, social and sponsored content, in-store tastings and point of sale. The objective is to increase demand for the nation’s most popular protein by inspiring consumers to hack their meal time whilst crafting delicious flavours conveniently.”
For more information, please visit www.waitoafreerange.co.nz. Orders can be placed with your Territory Manager or Customer Service on 0800 800 785.
Endlessly versatile, outrageously delicious!
First Light has created the ultimate convenience food – with no compromise on quality or taste. Featuring their premium 100% grass-fed Wagyu beef, each batch is lovingly slow cooked for at least 12 hours, making them meltingly tender, full of flavour and just downright delicious. They’ve done all the hard work, so all you need to do is reheat and serve.
Customers can choose from three delicious flavours; Wagyu Versatile Beef Cheek, Mānuka Smoked Wagyu BBQ Brisket and Soy & Sesame Wagyu Shank. They’re all gluten free and feature selected cuts of ethically raised meat with no added hormones.
First Light Farms’ heat and eat range was a natural progression from their core offering of 100% grass fed Wagyu beef and farm raised Venison. They know that Kiwis are short on time. Trying to balance work, family and everything in between is no easy feat. With this heat and eat range they’re giving the customer time back – time they can spend on the things that matter most – with a beautifully curated meal
for dinner that tastes delicious. It’s dinner time made easy with First Light’s succulent heat and eat range.
For more information on First Light Farms’ extensive range including their heat & eat products, contact Simon McKie at simon@firstlight.farm.
The FMCG Business team endeavours to produce a monthly snapshot of category news and highlights, based on information from participating clients, plus a table of the freshest data available at time of print. If you wish to contribute news for upcoming category reports, please contact trubanowski@fmcgbusiness.co.nz
