Fierce promotional activity at the checkout has hit Birds Eye revenues, as the business cut prices to revitalise the volume of sales.
Birds Eye revenues fell 3.3% to £788m in 2025 as shoppers sought out bargains and switched to own-label products amid a “highly promotional retail environment”.
The frozen food giant’s drop in revenue led to a 17% dip in operating profits to £89.4m, according to accounts newly filed to Companies House for the year to 31 December 2025.
Birds Eye’s sales have been under pressure since 2023, after the extended cost of living crisis pushed shoppers to what directors called “savvy tactics” last year.
The company suffered three-quarters of volume losses in 2025 before its investment in promotions and NPD helped push it to volume growth in the final quarter of the year.
“Consumers remained focused on affordability, increasingly utilising discounters, shopping across multiple retailers and carefully managing discretionary spend,” said a report from directors attached to the accounts.
Directors also detailed how sales in the first half of the year had been affected by unusually warm weather, which deflated consumer demand for its savoury goods; like-for-likes were also affected by retailers stocking up in 2024.
Frozen goods have struggled to find growth in recent years, and in 2025 the category was the slowest-growing major area in stores.
That year unit sales dipped 0.4% [Worldpanel by Numerator 52 w/e 30 Nov 2025], meaning the 2% value growth in the category came from pricing and a boost to premium ice cream sales.
Frozen fish and vegetables, two key areas for Birds Eye, were particularly slow with UK category-wide till sales declining 0.2% and 0.6% respectively – though frozen poultry goods sales values climbed 5.6% in the year.
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