● Pizza has been growing at the same pace as last year, driven by slightly increased frequency to 14.4 times a year combined with a 1.1% increase in the total number of shoppers and 0.6% price inflation. Average volume per trip is down from 6.2kg to 6kg.

● The proportion of pizza purchased on y-for-£x promotions dropped by 30% as retailers favoured temporary price reductions.

● The proportion of multipacks also decreased.

● While stonebaked has been important to chilled pizza growth, thin & crispy remains the most important sector, bringing an extra £18m to the chilled pizza category while being the only sector in growth within frozen.

● Own label represents 68.8% of take-home pizza and has grown 4.2%. On average, full-price branded pizza costs £5.93 per kg against £4.53 for own labels. This forces retailers to heavily promote branded pizza to attract shoppers – 70% of branded pizza are bought on promotions as opposed to 34% of own-label ones. Within frozen brands, Ristorante and Chicago Town are in decline.

Claire Liboureau, Kantar Worldpanel