What's cookin'? Refrigerated dinner entrees continue on a mature segment path, with innovative...

Refrigerated dinner entrees represent one of those hard-to-pin-down categories. In the mid-1990s, home meal replacements were touted as the next best thing to sliced bread, or at least sliced homemade pot roast. Then, just a couple years ago, a shakeout

Business Credit Solutions

• Get a Credit Report
• Get a D&B D-U-N-S Number
• Monitor My Business Credit - FREE TRIAL!

Business Credit Advice

• Business Credit Basics
• Build My Business Credit
• Extend Credit to Customers
• Use My Credit to Get Loans

Like many predictions and analyses, the market reality is somewhere in the middle. Data from Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) reveals sales of refrigerated dinner entrees are pegged at $650.4 million, a 5.5 percent-slide from this time last year. Still, within the category, some manufacturers have posted healthy gains.

Currently, the category is lead by private-label products. Among the top-selling brands, companies with healthy sales increases include Northfield, IL-based Kraft Foods' Louis Rich brand leaping an astounding 6,746 percent, Springdale, AR-based Tyson Foods jumping 51 percent, and Austin, MN-based Hormel rising 9 percent.

Competition heats up

As retailers increasingly set aside sections of the meat case for fully cooked entrees--often flagged as "meal solutions"--the competition is heating up. While Tyson continues to expand its growth through new items like Brown Sugar and Maple Glazed Ham and Carved Turkey Breast in Gravy, several other manufacturers have expanded or introduced refrigerated entrees during the past year. Hormel, which markets turkey entrees under the Jennie-O-Turkey Store[R] brand, added Stuffed Turkey Breast and Turkey Pot Roast with Brown Gravy to its So Easy line. Harris Ranch, one of the first companies to successfully market a refrigerated pot roast several years ago, also made some changes, upsizing to new one- and two-pound family sized packages of microwaveable beef entrees under the Cookhouse Classics banner.

Greeley, CO-based Swift & Co., which recently revamped the packaging and logo for its Swift Premium[R] Oven Roasters[TM] ready-to-cook line, is pursuing new avenues for growth as well. This summer, the company began test marketing Mexicanstyle pre-cooked entrees under its new La Herencia brand, including authentic dishes like Carnitas de Puerco (pork carnitas), Carne de Puerco Estilo Pibil (seasoned pork), and Carne Deshebrada (shredded beef).