T. Ozbun
Research expert covering food retail and all food topics for Italy and Brazil
You arrive home tired and feeling hungry. Suddenly, you remember the ready meal you bought at the grocer the previous day. With just a few minutes in the microwave, it's ready to satisfy your appetite. In 2023, this was a routine for an average of 16 percent of Italians.
Ready-to-eat meals form an integral part of the convenience food industry. In Italy, a total of 43 million kilograms of prepared meals were sold in retail as of the end of April 2023, generating a total value of 291 million euros. The largest share of ready meals sales came from supermarkets, accounting for 41.4 percent in 2023. Convenience stores, despite their name, held the lowest share at only around 10 percent. Among the various segments of ready-to-eat food, pizza and preparations stood out as the preferred and trendy choice, experiencing a remarkable sales increase of nearly 75 percent compared to the previous year. Although other segments also saw significant growth, they remained below 20 percent.
Set between home-cooking and dining out, the convenience food segment caters to consumers with a wide range of meal solutions. This sector presents an opportunity for profitable ventures and serves as a convenient choice for consumers seeking quick and easy solutions.
Ready-to-eat meals form an integral part of the convenience food industry. In Italy, a total of 43 million kilograms of prepared meals were sold in retail as of the end of April 2023, generating a total value of 291 million euros. The largest share of ready meals sales came from supermarkets, accounting for 41.4 percent in 2023. Convenience stores, despite their name, held the lowest share at only around 10 percent. Among the various segments of ready-to-eat food, pizza and preparations stood out as the preferred and trendy choice, experiencing a remarkable sales increase of nearly 75 percent compared to the previous year. Although other segments also saw significant growth, they remained below 20 percent.
Frosty convenience
Frozen food products form another important segment in the convenience industry. In Italian retail they have demonstrated consistent growth: between 2019 and 2023 the sales volume of frozen products increased from 589 thousand tons to 645 thousand. Almost all frozen food sales channels experienced a decline in volume, including retail , e-commerce, while door-to-door was the most affected. However, the away-from-home channel stood out as the only positive one, with a growth of over 17 percent compared to the previous year. Among the various frozen categories, Italian consumers displayed a preference for frozen natural vegetables and fruits, consuming approximately 208 thousand tons in 2022. Frozen pizza also enjoyed popularity, with over 66 thousand tons consumed in the same year.Tasty temptations
Among Italians, snacks and prepared sauces have emerged as popular convenience food segments. In 2023, sales of sweet snacks in food retail in the country reached nearly 931 million euros, a significant increase from the 2020 figure of 695 million euros. This trend highlights Italians’ sweet tooth, with at least one-third of individuals across all generations regularly consuming candy and chocolate in 2023. When it comes to UHT sauces, which undergo ultra-high temperature treatment to prolong the shelf life and eliminate microbes, the most favored varieties in retail in Italy were tomato-based and pesto-based, constituting a significant portion of the market share.Set between home-cooking and dining out, the convenience food segment caters to consumers with a wide range of meal solutions. This sector presents an opportunity for profitable ventures and serves as a convenient choice for consumers seeking quick and easy solutions.
