Young's Seafood is casting its net further across the chilled arena by adding four fish recipe ready meals to its repertoire.
The move continues the company's ambitious plan to boost its chilled turnover to £100m by 2008, which began with a raft of products targeting the convenience sector launched this time last year. An extended shelf life breaded chilled fish and fishcake range was added last month.
Rolling out now, the new meal range comprises a 400g Famous Fisherman's Pie made with sustainably-caught Alaskan pollock fillet and a 400g tuna and penne pasta dish, both retailing at £1,99, as well as a 360g haddock mornay recipe and a medium-strength prawn makhani curry, which are priced at £2.99. All have listings across retail channels.
Most of the company's business is still in frozen fish but, with the frozen fish market seeing negligible growth, chilled is the major growth area, with annual growth of 8% year-on-year, according to the company, outpacing sales of chilled meat and poultry.
James Turton, marketing director, said the company's branded chilled fish sales had accelerated by 42% in the past year and now accounted for 26% of its branded business. He said the previous launches had proven that a brand could break the mould and help to drive an own label-dominated market.
"We have made substantial investment over the past 12 months to devise and test recipes that fit the needs of consumers and significantly extend shelf life," he added.
"The escalating chilled seafood market can only be sustained by the kind of quality recipes and ingredients that the people who shop this category demand.
"These ranges answer the twin consumer and retailer requirements for great taste plus longer shelf life, which we can now achieve without artificial additives."
The move continues the company's ambitious plan to boost its chilled turnover to £100m by 2008, which began with a raft of products targeting the convenience sector launched this time last year. An extended shelf life breaded chilled fish and fishcake range was added last month.
Rolling out now, the new meal range comprises a 400g Famous Fisherman's Pie made with sustainably-caught Alaskan pollock fillet and a 400g tuna and penne pasta dish, both retailing at £1,99, as well as a 360g haddock mornay recipe and a medium-strength prawn makhani curry, which are priced at £2.99. All have listings across retail channels.
Most of the company's business is still in frozen fish but, with the frozen fish market seeing negligible growth, chilled is the major growth area, with annual growth of 8% year-on-year, according to the company, outpacing sales of chilled meat and poultry.
James Turton, marketing director, said the company's branded chilled fish sales had accelerated by 42% in the past year and now accounted for 26% of its branded business. He said the previous launches had proven that a brand could break the mould and help to drive an own label-dominated market.
"We have made substantial investment over the past 12 months to devise and test recipes that fit the needs of consumers and significantly extend shelf life," he added.
"The escalating chilled seafood market can only be sustained by the kind of quality recipes and ingredients that the people who shop this category demand.
"These ranges answer the twin consumer and retailer requirements for great taste plus longer shelf life, which we can now achieve without artificial additives."
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