Symington's extends Chicken Tonight with Tonight range

Tonight: range can be used with beef, lamb or pork

Chicken Tonight maker Symington’s has realised consumers might not feel like chicken tonight - and launched a new range of sauces that can be used with other meats.

The new range, which will sit alongside Chicken Tonight on shelf and is simply called Tonight, comprises six recipes: beef & ale casserole, cottage pie, chilli con carne, mild curry, spicy BBQ and sausage casserole (rsp £1.99).

Symington’s said it hoped the range would help double the value of the £16m brand, which has grown 22.5% in the wake of last year’s £2.5m revamp of Chicken Tonight [Kantar Worldpanel 52 w/e 12 May 2013]. The look of the Tonight range was consistent with the “new, fresh, modern look” of the overhauled Chicken Tonight lineup, it added.

The range also featured recipes that were “superior to existing products” such as Homepride from Premier Foods, as well as packaging that “stands out as modern and colourful in a category that has come to look dated”, claimed marketing controller Andrew Wade.

“Traditional sauces have seen the strongest growth of all cooking sauces, so it is a logical move for us to build on the popularity of Chicken Tonight to give UK shoppers even more variety for a tasty dinner option,” he added.

Tonight is in Morrisons now and rolls out to Tesco next month. Last month, Symington’s, which bought the Unilever brand in the UK in 2011, announced it was to license Unilever’s wet sauces portfolio in Australia, including Chicken Tonight.