There were 1,000 more promotions on frozen food in the year to May than last year across the big four retailers.

Cut-price offers by retailers and manufacturers increased frozen food promotions to 6,707 [Assos­ia 52w/e 10 May]. A third of frozen food was sold on deal [Kantar 52w/e April].

However, the avalanche of offers led to the frozen food category loosing grocery market share slipping from 5.8% to 5.6%, according to Kantar.

As well as more promotions, the price cuts were deeper, with the average amount of money saved by the consumer per promotion on a branded frozen food product increasing.

"Growth in frozen food is not as good as we'd like it to be and promotions are a significant contributor to that," said Ben Pearman, marketing director of Birds Eye UK, which ran the greatest number of promotions up 342 to 1,643.