Zeroing in on 'Zaaa
Great food, like great architecture, starts with a solid foundation. Whether it’s flour and water or bricks and mortar, a magnificent structure emerges to captivate the senses. Well-designed foods, like beautifully designed buildings, become icons for cities and symbols for nations, amazing us with inventive and ahead-of-their-time construction. What would France be without its bouillabaisse? What would Chicago be without the deep-dish pizza? How did that Naples baker, so long ago, think to put tomato sauce, Gdough and cheese together anyway?
America has taken pizza and turned it into one of its own great gastronomical wonders. Upscale restaurants now serve pizza as appetizers and main courses, taking the simple dough and building it from the ground up with standard ingredients like cheese and sauce or unique additions like roasted garlic, pine nuts or imported cheeses.
No doubt pizzerias and restaurants inspire their freezer case counterparts. So inspiring, in fact, that frozen pizzas are now truly giving pizzerias a run for their money. According to Chicago-based Information Resources, Inc., frozen pizza sales are up 2.8% for 52 weeks ending December 28, 2003, with more than $2 billion in total sales.
With new regulations and new opportunities, frozen pizza is ready to renovate the freezer case with new and innovative products. |
Frozen Pizza(for 52-weeks ended December 28, 1998) | ||||||
Rank | Brand
| Dollar Volume (in millions)
| % Change
| Dollar Share
| Unit Sales (in millions)
| % Change
|
1 | DiGiorno | $491.1 | +3.9 | 17.7 | 88.7 | +2.1 |
2 | Tombstone | $333.4 | -5.6 | 12.0 | 85.0 | -4.1 |
3 | Red Baron | $269.4 | +16.7 | 9.7 | 72.8 | +20.3 |
4 | Freschetta | $208.5 | +9.5 | 7.5 | 39.3 | +2.4 |
5 | Private Label | $188.5 | +14.5 | 6.8 | 100.4 | +16.8 |
6 | Totino’s Party Pizza | $181.9 | +4.5 | 6.5 | 143.0 | +5.4 |
7 | Tony’s | $167.0 | -11.1 | 6.0 | 57.3 | -11.4 |
8 | Stouffer’s | $103.1 | -3.1 | 3.7 | 33.8 | -4.8 |
9 | Jack’s Original | $98.9 | -1.3 | 3.6 | 34.8 | -0.2 |
10 | Celeste Pizza for One | $79. | -5.0 | 2.9 | 53.5 | +0.9 |
TOTAL* | $2,782.2
| +2.8%
| 100.0
| 970.3
| +2.7%
| |
*including brands not shown |
SOURCE: Information Resources Inc., Supermarkets, Drug Stores and Mass Merchandisers, excluding Wal-Mart