In from the cold

This past Sunday, the world's biggest frozen French fries maker hit television screens in India with its first ad campaign for the country. Hot, crisp, fresh, convenient, easy was McCain Foods India's promise as it showcased its potato wedges, Smiles and fries, with the tagline Fresh Banega, Baat Banegi .

But why play on the ‘fresh' angle for a ‘frozen' item?

“The creative challenge for us was to communicate the ‘fresh' attribute of the product and to break the consumer mindset on frozen foods,” explains Samir Gangahar, Executive Director, Leo Burnett, which executed the campaign.

For India's nascent frozen foods industry, it's not just the perception of ‘not fresh' that it has to overcome in the customer mind. Although it has been around for more than a decade, a whole set of challenges have so far prevented the industry from growing.

“Low consumer awareness levels, an underdeveloped frozen foods distribution network, and lack of freezer space at the retail end have posed a problem for frozen foods companies like ours,” says K.S. Narayanan, Managing Director, McCain Foods India.

But, suddenly, there appears to be a big thaw towards frozen. With food inflation at a high, and eating out becoming expensive, the coming-home-to-a-frozen meal-proposition - so entrenched in Western markets such as the UK - has now started appealing to Indian customers.

“Convenience has become a big driver for our category now,” says Munish Soni, Deputy General Manager (Marketing), Mother Dairy, which is the market leader in frozen peas with its Safal brand. Mother Dairy's frozen foods division contributes nearly Rs 80 crore annually to its F&B division turnover of Rs 600 crore.

Kannan Sitaram, Chief Operating Partner of India Equity Partners, which has acquired Kochi-based Innovative Foods, maker of the Sumeru brand of frozen products, points to hygiene as another driver. “We find that consumer preference for frozen non-vegetarian items is rising because of the hygiene issue,” he says.

The big thaw

Compared with a market such as the UK, where the frozen food industry is worth a whopping €5 billion, the Indian industry - at Rs 1,000 crore - may look pea-sized. But riding on a host of factors, including the rise of modern retail, better cold chain infrastructure, and greater consumer acceptance, there's been a sudden spurt of growth in the category.

The big players in the segment - from McCain Foods to Mother Dairy to Godrej Tyson Foods and Innovative Foods - say the category is now clipping along at 20-25 per cent per annum.

Some claim to be growing faster than the industry average. “Our frozen foods division is growing at 70-80 per cent per annum,” says Sushil Sawant, Associate Vice-President – India Operations, Godrej Tyson Foods Ltd.

McCain's Narayanan also attributes the sudden growth in the category to the rise in demand from quick service restaurants. McCain products, he says, are being used by leading fast-food chains, hotels, restaurants and catering companies in India, though he says, home consumer demand is also picking up now.

Heating the market with advertising

Almost all the players have raised the decibel, and are now trying to make their brands more visible.

Mother Dairy, which claims to be the market leader in frozen vegetables, is using the kitty party route to woo housewives. It is also trying to beef up the distribution end by using its ice-cream channels. In Delhi, for instance, it is pressing into service ice-cream vending carts to test if they can be used to retail vegetables. “Our biggest advantage is the cold chain we have for ice-creams. We are riding on that for our frozen foods,” says Soni. He says the dairy and vegetables major is also helping retailers by placing freezers at their stores.

McCain, meanwhile, apart from the TVC, is also organising large-scale sampling and consumer contact programmes in various cities. It hopes the trials will break barriers to the adoption of frozen foods. “We have introduced trial packs at Rs 25, which enable the consumer to try out different products, significantly reduce the cost of trial and the risk of failure,” says Narayanan.

In Delhi, McCain has also tied up with several residents' welfare associations and, like Mother Dairy, has been conducting in-home kitty parties to reach out to women.

Godrej, meanwhile, is focusing on “consumer education” to drive adoption. “Indians still lag behind in understanding frozen products — that it has to be kept in freezers, and not thawed before cooking. Though we write the instructions, somehow consumers feel it has to be thawed and cooked,” says Sawant. The company is imparting this education through multiple-level consumer touchpoints — at the shop-level, experiential, digital. “We are also partnering with modern retail in promoting the category and product,” he says. So far, Godrej has used print and radio to advertise, but might look at TV soon, he says.

Cooking up demand

What's also driving excitement in the category is the host of new products that have suddenly been unleashed.

Take McCain, which, after a rash of potato-based products, including Super Wedges, Smiles, Rosti Rounds and ethnic specialities such as Aloo Tikki, Crunchy Potato Bites with Chilli & Garlic, has suddenly come up with a 3-minute rice idli offering. In addition, it has also started retailing imported Cheese appetisers such as Cheese and Jalapeno Nuggets, Macaroni ‘n' Cheese Munchies and Mozarella Cheese Sticks.

Mother Dairy, which till now was focussing on vegetables, has also jumped into the fray with snack offerings. From frozen corn cobs to cheese cutlets, tikkis and French Fries, it is test marketing a new snack range. “It should be launched in the next six months,” says Soni.

As for Godrej, which unleashed two new Yummiez offerings — Dilli Aloo Chaat and Seekh Kabab last month - to add to its existing 13-14 products, it promises more soon from its Bangalore R&D labs. Sawant says the company is innovating on five-six frozen products that should be launched by the year-end.

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