Retailer demands for well-differentiated ready meals, on low margins, often with product life measured in weeks rather than months, are having a major impact on pack design and supply in the sector.
According to Avro Industries company Anson Packaging, the ready meals sector is especially susceptible to these pressures. Senior national account manager Melanie Williams says: "Designing a pack from scratch can cost £12,000 in tooling. But a customer can't be sure if a product will be pulled after just six weeks. Marks & Spencer (M&S), for instance, will pull a product if it does not sell 2,000 units a week."
In any case, Williams says, a retailer such as M&S will require seasonal ranges, with no guarantee that a winter recipe will return the following year. At the same time, other retailers are increasingly tiering their ready meals ranges, with different packaging required for each variant and segment.
Anson has responded by expanding its range of polypropylene microwave-only trays available from stock. This will also help customers under pressure from retailers to come up with a product quickly, it says.
Other suppliers are focusing on the need for continual innovation. Sealed Air Cryovac stresses the fact that ready meals packs are not generally binned on opening. "The packaging is much more interactive for the consumer," says retail sales manager Samantha Newman. "Retailers continually want to add value to the pack and make it more useful."
Like others supplying the sector, Sealed Air Cryovac now has a steam-cooking concept. But Newman says this is an area which will continue to develop. The company has also seen its Darfresh skin packaging used for microwaveable meals of meat with sauce. Kepak Ireland has used it for its Global Cuisine brand.
To these options, the packaging supplier has now added SimpleOven, a tray made from foamed crystalline polyethylene terephthalate (CPET). This takes 30% of the weight out of the pack, says Newman, provides better sealing and improves insulation for the consumer after cooking. Last month, the pack was due to see its first retail ready meal application.