iceland chicken ramen soup

Iceland’s new frozen soups have helped boost the flagging soup category, racking up sales of £6.3m over the past year [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 17 July 2016].

Soups launched under the successful Slimming World range, exclusive to Iceland, have amassed sales of £2.2m, while the retailer’s own-label range added £4.1m to the fledgling frozen soup category.

Variants in Iceland’s own-label range include Asian-inspired Tom Kha and Chicken Ramen among more traditional flavours such as Mushroom and Tomato & Basil.

This comes at a time when canned soup sales are plummeting, with £28.7m lost as value fell 8.2% on volumes down 4.4%. Heinz, the category leader, took the biggest hit with £27.4m in losses [IRI 52 w/e 13 August 2016].

Heinz’s canned soup portfolio is now set for a makeover as part of the brand’s £10.6m Love Soup campaign, which kicked off this month.

“Winter is the key season for soup, and the third warmest since records began in 1910 likely played a part in the sluggish sales this year,” said Kantar Worldpanel analyst Jackson Woods.