Entrepreneurs Serve Up Convenience for America's Working Parents (10/5)

Entrepreneurs Serve Up Convenience for America's Working Parents

A growing economy, along with an increase in working women, is changing the country's eating habits and rejuvenating the frozen-food trend of the early 1990s. Since Clarence Birdseye began delivering frozen fish in the 1920s, product freshness has been a priority. This time around, however, consumers are searching for fresh concepts that include not only quality and convenience, but variety and value as well.

"For too long the term 'frozen dinner' has conjured up images of frost-covered fish sticks in aluminum trays," says Michael Renna, founder of Michael Angelo's Gourmet Foods, an Austin, Texas-based company that produces restaurant-quality frozen Italian foods. "Women today, especially those who work full-time and raise children, don't want to compromise on the quality of meals they serve their families, yet their time is at a premium. We are finding that increasingly, female shoppers are looking for higher-quality, more delicious alternatives in the frozen-food aisle, and our goal is to provide that," explains Renna.

"Frozen pizza is another good example of the industry stepping up to the quality challenge," says Ben Ball, a marketplace management consultant for Dechert-Hampe and frozen foods expert. "Delivery or take-out pizza is readily available, totally convenient and generally of very good quality." He says innovations such as DiGiorno's rising-crust pizza increased consumer relevancy in the frozen-foods category. "This tremendous product innovation brought a whole new technology to the industry that can finally deliver pizzeria-quality crust," he explains.

According to the American Frozen Food Institute, despite market saturation and fierce competition from fresh prepared and take-out food, the prepared frozen-food market has shown increasing revenues over the past few years, reaching $10.6 billion in 1997. These upward trends in frozen-food sales are expected to continue, says a recent survey by Frozen Food Age, revealing 78 percent of participants feel the frozen food category's share of supermarket sales will grow over the next five years.

In May 1997, Mexico-based Sigma Alimentos SA began selling frozen Mexican dishes such as stuffed chiles, corn tortillas called flautas, and a shredded meat-and-chili dish called tinga. Sigma is trying to carve out a niche for typical Mexican dinners that are different from U.S.-style frozen Mexican dishes and expects its frozen-food unit to sell $50 million in Mexican frozen dinners in the next five years. "The (plant) supervisors are chefs," says plant manager Sergio Baidon. "They seek recipes that are as similar as possible to how people make it."

Currently Sigma only exports about 2 percent of the frozen dishes to company cafeterias that have large Hispanic populations in Chicago, New York and Florida. However, Sigma expects to begin selling the frozen dishes in U.S. supermarkets in October, says Alvaro Madero, director of Sigma's frozen and prepared foods unit. "There's still a lot of potential for development," he adds.

Natural foods lovers need not be left out in the cold, either. Founded by Andy and Rachel Berliner in 1987, California-based Amy's Kitchen offers an entire line of natural frozen foods. Amy's bridges the gap between health and gourmet foods at an affordable price with pot pies, veggie burgers and other organic options. None of the dishes contain meat, fish, poultry or eggs. The Berliners say vegetarianism and organic foods are here to stay. "They benefit the consumer, the grower and the environment," say the couple.