Robert M. Grant’s article titled “Case Thirteen Birds Eye and the UK Frozen Food Industry” discusses the journey of Birds Eye Foods Ltd. in the UK. The story begins with George Muddiman, the first chairman of the company, arriving in Liverpool from Canada on February 12, 1946. With a gloomy atmosphere, Muddiman questioned his decision to leave Canada for this new venture. Despite facing various challenges in production, raw materials, and distribution, Birds Eye gradually established itself in the early 1950s. In 1952, it proudly opened the largest quick-frozen food factory in Great Yarmouth, positioning itself for continuous expansion. By 1964, their food sales for the year reached ? 75 million, a significant growth compared to the initial ? 150,000 in 1946. During this time, Birds Eye dominated 70 percent of the market. However, starting from the late 1960s, both their return on capital and market share began to decline due to increased competition.
Following the retirement of James Parratt, known as “Mr Fish Fingers,” in July 1972, Birds Eye’s success declined. By 1983, the company’s share of retail frozen food sales had decreased to 18.5 percent. ¦ BEGINNINGS1 ¦ Quick-freezing halts the decomposition of perishable foods and allows fresh foods to be delivered to consumers at any time and location. Nevertheless, the freezing process must be rapid to avoid the formation of harmful ice crystals that can harm the food’s cellular structure.
General Foods Corporation successfully manufactured and marketed “Birds Eye” frozen foods in the United States by the late 1920s. This was made possible through the use of multi-plate quick-freezers developed by Clarence Birdseye. In the UK, the introduction of Birds Eye frozen foods was initiated by Robert Ducas, chairman of Winget Ltd, a Kent engineering company. Ducas had tried frozen foods in the US and recognized their potential in Britain. In August 1938, Birds Eye Foods Ltd was created, with ownership shared by General Foods Corp., Robert Ducas, and Chivers and Sons Ltd, a British canner and jam-maker. Birds Eye was not the only company pioneering frozen foods in Britain, as commercial quick-freezing had already begun before 1939 thanks to Smedley’s (National Canning). In the early years, Smedley’s had a stronger presence than Birds Eye. Other leading companies that were striving to establish successful frozen food businesses included various fish distributors and marketers such as Smethurst Ltd, Mudd and Son, and Associated Fisheries Ltd (through Eskimo Foods Ltd).
A cold storage company called “Fropax” launched a line of frozen foods. Manuel’s, an importer and wholesaler of frozen foods, obtained the UK concession for importing and distributing Findus frozen foods. By 1942, Unilever became interested in the Birds Eye business and saw its value to its subsidiaries Macfisheries (fish), Batchelors Peas (dried peas), and Poulton & Noel, Ltd (poultry). During a meeting on February 4, 1942, Unilever’s management committee set guidelines for a frozen food business. The business was expected to develop in three main groups: fruit and vegetables, fish, and meat.
They envisioned having Birds Eye companies worldwide and assembling a team capable of providing assistance in establishing these new companies wherever necessary. While they were open to producing high-end products, they believed in upholding the business’s roots in catering to the everyday needs of the mass market. Their goal was to primarily focus on the extensive production of select key products.
Unilever acquired Birds Eye Foods in March 1943 during World War II. The task of establishing a frozen food business in the UK was difficult because of the high costs of quick-freezing. It was only worth freezing the best quality food that could be sold at a high enough price to cover expenses and generate a profitable return. Additionally, the food had to be frozen at its peak condition to fully benefit from the freezing process. Therefore, measures had to be taken to ensure that produce was harvested at the precise moment and processed within hours.
Fish and certain other food items cannot be controlled during their production process. However, having a highly efficient buying organization is crucial. The challenge lies in ensuring that the produce remains frozen until it reaches the consumer. This is particularly difficult for seasonal products like peas, which need to be kept in cold storage for several months. To tackle this, insulated vehicles are required during transportation from the factory to the shop. The shops themselves need cabinets to store the frozen products, and the shopkeepers must be convinced to allocate space for them. The financing of these cabinets can be done by either the shopkeepers themselves or the freezing firms. Birds Eye’s initial focus was on creating an integrated organization that manages every aspect from controlling food production to stocking the retailer’s frozen food cabinet. Due to a lack of established infrastructure for producing, storing, distributing, and retailing frozen foods, Birds Eye had to construct its own system. ¦ BUILDING MARKET LEADERSHIP ¦ During production, the main challenges arose from the concentrated processing period, unreliable machinery, and a shortage of skilled labor in this field.
The majority of the machinery needed for frozen food processing had to be brought in from the United States and Canada, resulting in high capital costs. Fixed costs accounted for over two-thirds of the processing expenses, but each plate freezer had the flexibility to freeze various types of food depending on seasonal availability. The primary factor in determining the location of frozen food processing factories was the origin of the raw materials. Prepared foods, such as desserts or entrees, could be situated in any location. However, production of vegetables and fish needed to be based on the eastern side of Great Britain, close to the areas where vegetables are grown and the major fishing ports.
Peas, for example, required processing within 90 minutes after being picked. Therefore, processing plants were concentrated in Humberside, Lincolnshire, and East Anglia. By 1960, Birds Eye operated six factories and associated cold stores in Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Kirkby, Grimsby, Hull, and Eastbourne. Each factory produced various products to efficiently utilize manpower and equipment despite the seasonal availability of raw materials. After planning the production facilities, the next objective was to obtain supplies of raw materials of exceptional quality.
Vegetable suppliers for Birds Eye typically had annual contracts, pledging a specific acreage and agreeing to a fixed price per ton based on quality. Birds Eye maintained strict oversight over the crops, providing the seeds, dictating planting schedules, and approving the use of fertilizers and insecticides. Skilled technicians monitored moisture levels in the produce to determine the best time for harvesting and relayed this information to processing plants. The processing plants then coordinated the movement of harvesting equipment between farms and facilitated the transportation of the harvested produce from the farms to the factories.
Initially, Birds Eye owned the majority of the harvesting equipment utilized by growers. The equipment replaced manual labor due to the urgency of harvesting the crop before freezing. Growers eventually purchased their own machines through long-term contracts with Birds Eye. In the event that annual acreage contracts could not be agreed upon, Birds Eye would repurchase the equipment. Due to the expensive nature of pea harvesting equipment, farmer cooperatives became the primary suppliers of vegetables. By 1974, these cooperatives were responsible for providing 70 percent of peas and 60 percent of beans used in freezing.
For 20 years, many suppliers had been continuously providing Birds Eye with their products. The frozen food industry became the primary customer for green vegetables as the demand for frozen vegetables increased. By 1975, half of all peas and three-quarters of green beans were being grown specifically for freezing. The whitefish, such as cod, haddock, halibut, plaice, sole, and coley, were used for quick-freezing. These fish were mainly obtained fresh from dockside auctions or imported from Scandinavia in frozen blocks of fillets for use in various heavily processed items like fish fingers.
In the late 1960s, frozen fish became available through contracts in addition to being caught at sea. These contracts would guarantee the purchase of a portion of the catch, as long as it exceeded a certain size, and at a price up to 5 percent lower than the previous month’s auction price. As a result, frozen food companies began to receive one-third of the total whitefish catch, leading to a shift towards contract purchases replacing open auctions at fish markets. Birds Eye, a frozen food company, also participated in dockside auctions, particularly in Grimsby. In some cases, Birds Eye even sought direct ownership of their sources of raw material.
During its early years in the broiler chicken industry, it quickly established a capacity to produce 6.5 million birds annually across twenty farms. However, due to overproduction concerns and the belief that it was not operating at its optimal size, the farms were sold to Ross Poultry in 1972. In order to secure a steady source of cod, Birds Eye obtained a majority stake in a fishing company in 1965. Unfortunately, operational difficulties coincided with a decline in global fish prices, leading Birds Eye to sell the fishing company’s assets in 1969.
As Birds Eye made advancements in food processing and freezing techniques, as well as improvements in quality management, the company recognized the need for enhancements in its raw material production. Birds Eye played a key role in improving vegetable cultivation techniques and harvesting equipment in the field of horticulture. In comparison, the challenges faced in distribution production were relatively minor. Distribution costs accounted for an estimated 15 to 25 percent of total costs associated with frozen food. The availability of public cold stores, which were primarily used for storing frozen meat, fish, and ice cream, was limited and mostly concentrated near large cities. These cold stores were also costly to operate. In the mid-1960s, a minimum efficient scale cold store with a capacity of 2.4 million cubic feet cost ?0.6m. It was believed that each doubling of capacity would result in a 20 percent decrease in operating expenses. Birds Eye’s investment in cold storage and refrigerated distribution primarily involved its sister company, SPD (Speedy Prompt Delivery), which was also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unilever. Therefore, SPD became increasingly involved in resolving these distribution challenges.
They expanded their cold storage capabilities and incorporated insulated vehicles to transport the products to retail locations. The cold storage capacity steadily grew with the introduction of more advanced buildings. Depots were operated in close partnership with SPD and expanded to the extent that Birds Eye could store approximately 50,000 tons of frozen food. By the late 1960s, SPD had established a nationwide frozen food distribution system for Birds Eye, operating from 42 depots and allowing direct service to around 93,000 outlets.
Birds Eye considered it a crucial component of its operations, compensating for its services at cost and generating a yearly profit to account for the capital invested by SPD on behalf of Birds Eye. In certain regions where it was not economically feasible, Birds Eye designated exclusive wholesalers to distribute its frozen products to retailers. The collaboration in investment between Birds Eye and SPD facilitated a remarkable 40 percent annual growth in tonnage sales for Birds Eye throughout the 1950s. Retailing
The biggest hurdle faced by the frozen foods industry was the state of retail distribution. In the 1940s and early 1950s, retail distribution was highly fragmented, with numerous small shops and counter service being widespread. This structure of the retail trade remained stagnant during the post-war period due to continued food rationing until 1953, which greatly reduced competition among retailers.
The main challenge at the time was convincing food retailers to invest in refrigerated cabinets. With an average cost of ? 50, the price was a significant deterrent for most retailers. Nevertheless, even without proper placement, a 10 cu. ft. cabinet could generate an annual turnover ranging between ? 500 and ? 1,500. Considering an average retail margin of 20%, a retailer with a ? 1,000 annual turnover could make a profit of ? 200 before accounting for servicing and maintenance charges. Over the cabinet’s lifespan of 12-15 years, this would result in a substantial return on investment. 6
The major manufacturers of ice cream used to lend cabinets to retailers as part of their supply. However, this approach had a significant drawback – it required a large amount of capital, similar to the investment needed for production facilities. In 1953, Birds Eye changed their strategy and stopped renting cabinets to retailers. Instead, they convinced Prestcold and Frigidaire, two producers of industrial refrigerators and air-conditioning equipment, to manufacture “open top” display cabinets specifically designed for frozen food storage and display. From then on, Birds Eye would only pursue new partnerships with retailers that had these cabinets installed.
Market Development and Product Innovation: With the establishment of necessary infrastructure, the demand for frozen foods grew. At first, frozen foods were considered a luxurious choice over canned or dried food due to their ability to maintain the fresh product’s appearance and flavor. As the cost of frozen foods reduced, their growth rate accelerated. However, the demand for frozen foods remained highly responsive to price changes, and the consumption patterns were greatly impacted by the price and availability of fresh produce, resulting in seasonal and yearly fluctuations.
Sales between 1956 and 1981 saw an average annual increase of approximately 15%, although the growth rate of tonnage sales declined over time. From 1956 to 1961, there was an average annual growth of 36%, which decreased to 10.5% per year between 1962 and 1973, and further dropped to 6.9% between 1974 and 1980. Table 12.1 illustrates the growth in UK spending on frozen food sales. The 1950s and 1960s witnessed a rapid expansion in the number of retail outlets providing frozen foods, along with a wider variety of frozen food options becoming available.
Initially, Birds Eye focused on using seasonal produce like green vegetables and fruit. However, they soon expanded their range to include processed foods and prepared meals. By the 1950s, Birds Eye had set up a system that covered both production and distribution, allowing them to shift their strategy towards marketing. With a national organization in place, the company’s main goal was to increase sales through the introduction of new products. Furthermore, they aimed to raise consumer awareness about the convenience and affordability of frozen foods while also building a reputation for high quality associated with the Birds Eye brand.
The introduction of fish fingers in 1955 was followed by beefburgers in 1960 and by a series of new fish, meat, and dessert products. The top five selling items – peas, beans, chips, fish fingers, and beefburgers – made up almost 40% of the company’s revenue. The advent of commercial television in 1955 played a crucial role in their marketing strategy as it allowed them to engage in mass-market advertising for their brand and new products. This medium also gave Birds Eye a significant advantage over smaller competitors as they were the only industry advertiser until 1958.
Birds Eye revolutionized the frozen food industry by introducing a level of product quality that exceeded people’s expectations for processed food. Additionally, the brand’s personality incorporated traits such as efficiency, hygiene, confidence, and completeness, which went beyond the physical and functional attributes of their products. As a result of Birds Eye’s groundbreaking efforts and substantial investment from the Unilever Group, they achieved market dominance in the rapidly expanding UK frozen food market.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Birds Eye dominated the UK frozen food sales, representing more than 60 percent in terms of tonnage. In the retail market, Birds Eye estimated their brand market share to be over 70 percent by value and around two-thirds by tonnage for a majority of this time period. With regard to frozen food sales, Birds Eye accounted for 75 percent of sales among the outlets it served, and approximately 40,000 retail outlets exclusively carried Birds Eye products. Furthermore, their top twenty retail customers contributed nearly a third of their total sales.
Birds Eye had a significant competitive edge over its main competitors, Ross and Findus. Birds Eye consistently achieved higher returns on capital employed compared to them (based on historic cost). For instance, in 1974, Birds Eye’s return on capital was 15.9 percent, while Findus earned 8.9 percent (frozen food only) and Ross Foods earned 4.3 percent (all food businesses). Both Findus and Ross were followers of Birds Eye, as Birds Eye led the market’s development. Findus and Ross adopted similar approaches to production, distribution, product development, and marketing in response to Birds Eye’s pioneering efforts.
Birds Eye’s advertising expenses were limited because Ross Foods copied many of their product and marketing strategies. Imperial Foods, the parent company of Ross Foods, acknowledged to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission that they could not afford to heavily invest in brand support like Birds Eye did. In 1973, Ross Foods significantly reduced its advertising for retail packs as it was not helping them compete effectively. Notably, Birds Eye maintained brand leadership and superior profitability, and neither Ross Foods nor Findus were willing to undercut them. The Monopolies and Mergers Commission observed that Birds Eye often initiated price changes in the frozen food industry, with other smaller producers like Ross Foods following suit by setting their prices at similar levels.Due to its restricted advertising and promotional efforts, Ross Foods is unable to secure shelf space in retailers’ cabinets or price their products higher than Birds Eye. However, they also cannot afford to significantly lower their prices below Birds Eye’s.
Birds Eye’s retail dominance was supported by a discount system that incentivized larger retailers to give Birds Eye the majority of their frozen foods business. The company provided discounts to multiple retailers, with the size of the discounts based on factors such as the retailer’s annual turnover, cabinet space allotted to Birds Eye products, and the frequency and size of deliveries. On average, discounts amounted to 6 percent of all retailers’ gross revenues. The goal in negotiating these discounts was to maintain consistent levels of gross profitability across various customers and to capture differences in serving costs. Consequently, larger retailers received the highest discount, exceeding 10 percent of their purchase value, even though supplying them reportedly surpassed cost savings. During the 1970s and 1980s, as competition intensified in the frozen foods market, Birds Eye experienced a decline in both market share and profitability.
During the 1960s, changes in food retailing had a significant impact on the frozen food industry. Two key developments during this time were the shift from counter service to self-service, which greatly expanded marketing possibilities for frozen food processors and allowed for the introduction of innovative products and packaging. Additionally, the emergence of supermarkets and supermarket chains played a major role. In 1960, there were only 367 supermarkets, defined as self-service food shops with a floor space of 2,000 square feet or more.
The increase in concentration in the grocery trade was influenced by the ability of supermarket chains to pass on cost savings to consumers and the demand for a wider variety of goods. Supermarkets operated central or regional warehouses to distribute grocery products to their individual supermarkets. They also started selling their own brands of frozen foods. Sainsbury introduced its own brand of frozen peas in 1967, leading to an increase in the share of frozen food sales by retailer brands.
During the late 1960s, the impact of supermarkets in expanding the retail cabinet space was further highlighted by the arrival of specialized frozen foods stores. These stores were designed to cater to the growing number of households with home freezers. In order to meet the demands of this expanding market, a new type of frozen food retailing model emerged: home freezer centers that not only sold home freezers but also offered large packs of frozen foods, originally packed for caterers. This particular type of frozen food retailing was characterized by its emphasis on large packs, a wide range of products, lack of focus on brands, and affordable prices.
Larger cabinet capacity, typically with backup storage, allowed freezer centers to reduce the number of deliveries and increase the size of each drop. Their portion of frozen food sales was 18 percent in 1978 and grew to 23.5 percent in 1986. Table 12.4 displays the evolving structure of UK grocery retailing. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a surge of new entries into the industry, despite the prior consolidation around three major, vertically integrated suppliers. For companies already involved in food processing, blast freezers, a new technology, could be easily purchased “off the shelf” for small units at a cost as low as few thousand pounds.
These allowed freezing and packing to occur simultaneously and eliminated the need for separate production processes. Although large-scale processing and freezing allowed for automation and increased division of labor, the cost savings from increased production scale were generally not significant. The frozen food processing industry saw a diverse group of new entrants, including Jus-Roll Ltd and Primecut Foods Ltd (then W.B.), as noted by the Monopolies Commission in 1976.
In 1954, Wright Provision Ltd) was established, followed by the establishment of Northray Foods Ltd in 1956, Kraft Foods Ltd in 1963, McCain International Ltd and Potato and Allied Services Ltd in 1968, Frozen Quality Ltd in 1969, Country Range Ltd and King Harry Foods in 1970, White House Foods Ltd and Fife Growers Ltd in 1971, and Wold Growers Ltd in 1974. While some of these new entrants were newly created enterprises, most were either existing companies or subsidiaries of established companies. In many cases, companies already involved in food production expanded their operations to include frozen foods.
Many agricultural cooperatives, such as Northray Foods Ltd, Frozen Quality Ltd, Fife Growers Ltd, and Wold Pea Growers Ltd, initially started as smaller processors of vegetables and fruit. In the frozen food processing industry, meat companies like FMC Ltd, Dalgety Ltd (specifically through Dalgety-Buswell Ltd and Dalgety Frozen Foods Ltd), and Thos Borthwick & Sons Ltd (via Freshbake Foods Ltd) have also entered the market. Additionally, various fishing and fish merchanting companies, including Associated Fisheries Ltd, J. Marr (Fish Merchants) Ltd, and Chaldur Frozen Fish Co., have ventured into the processing of frozen food.
Ltd. [Most] companies in the frozen food industry focus on specific categories like vegetables, fish, meat products, and fruit and confectionery. Certain companies, such as McCain and King Harry Foods, specialize in one product only – potato chips and pizzas respectively. Additionally, marketing-only companies like W. B. Pellew-Harvey & Co. Ltd and J. Muirhead have emerged. These companies purchase frozen food from other manufacturers and label them with their own brand names – “Angelus,” “Chef’s Garden,” and “4F.”
Christian Salvesen and other independent companies were responsible for handling the physical distribution needs of specialized frozen food suppliers. During the late 1969 to 1973 period, public cold storage companies like Christian Salvesen, Union Cold Storage, and Frigoscandia increased their cold storage capacity significantly. These companies not only provided storage facilities but also offered processing, freezing, and distribution services to support the entry and viability of smaller frozen food suppliers.
By 1974, Christian Salvesen had a cold storage capacity that was nearly a third of Birds Eye’s. In 1978, Christian Salvesen processed 75% of the vegetables it stored, which was an increase from 20% in 1969. They offered their services through medium term, multi-year contracts. Additionally, Salvesen had a fleet of refrigerated trucks that operated from their network of cold stores and were available for rent on long-term contracts or as needed. Christian Salvesen was the chosen provider for refrigerated distribution needs by Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer, two major British food retailers that offered a wide selection of their own-brand frozen foods.
Several firms had specialized in different aspects of the frozen foods industry. Frionor and Bonduelle focused on importing and marketing products from their parent companies overseas. On the other hand, Anglo European Foods, Snowking, Frozen Foods, and Flying Goose specialized in distribution, with a particular emphasis on serving the catering trade. The increasing trend of British consumers dining outside their homes and the catering industry’s shift towards frozen foods created a highly appealing opportunity for new players in the frozen foods sector.
Catering establishments were targeted by a distinct market segment that prioritized price over brand recognition and advanced product packaging. Smaller processors could effortlessly sell their products to the catering industry without the requirement of investing in brands and distribution. After serving the catering industry, it was convenient to expand into supplying retail home freezer centers and supermarkets’ own-label products. The peak of Birds Eye’s success occurred when James Parratt, the company’s chairman, retired in July 1972.
Birds Eye, under the leadership of Kenneth Webb, experienced a new era of competitive pressure which caused a reevaluation of its strategy. Despite being the top player in the UK frozen foods market, Birds Eye’s dominance was mostly in sales of small retail packs to independent grocers and supermarkets. In certain areas, Birds Eye had weak representation, with only an 8 percent market share in home freezer centers in 1974 and minimal involvement in retailers’ own labels. In the catering sector, Birds Eye had a market share of around 10 percent in 1973.
After the early 1970s, Birds Eye’s share of tonnage sales decreased steadily despite the overall growth of the market, albeit at a slower pace. To adapt to market changes, particularly the increase in bulk buying by consumers with home freezers, and to compete with new players in the industry, Birds Eye launched bulk packs for retail in 1972. Additionally, in 1974, they established a new venture called County Fair Foods to cater to home freezer centers and other customers who were willing to accept a minimum drop size.
County Fair Foods and Birds Eye both utilized the same production facilities. However, County Fair Foods had its own distribution system through Christian Salvesen. This was necessary because freezer centers required different qualities, types of products, distribution methods, prices, and promotion strategies.
In 1976, Birds Eye created Menumaster Ltd specifically to provide frozen prepared meals to caterers. In the retail market, Birds Eye’s primary objective was to sustain sales growth by expanding its product range with new introductions.
Throughout the 1970s, Birds Eye reduced its reliance on traditional products such as vegetables, fish fingers, and beefburgers by consistently introducing new items like ready-to-eat meals, desserts, and ethnic dishes (e.g., Chinese, Indian, and Italian dishes). This expansion of Birds Eye’s product line and the target market segments it aimed to serve presented significant challenges for the company’s marketing strategy and allocation of advertising funds.
The challenge of marketing Birds Eye’s products in diverse sectors, such as promoting high-end prepared dishes and expanding into affordable packs of basic products, proved to be difficult to coordinate. According to marketing director Keith Jacobs, this required a careful balancing act: the company’s advertising had to both uphold its reputation as a provider of convenient foods and establish credibility as a seller of various items, like pizzas. Birds Eye took a more focused approach in its advertising efforts.
Birds Eye restructured its advertising strategy by focusing its national TV advertising on its main products and using more targeted advertising for new products based on regional and segment-specific needs. The company reduced advertising support for “support products.” To address the increasing influence of large supermarket chains, Birds Eye shifted its marketing focus in the 1960s from consumer marketing to trade marketing. This change involved building strong relationships with major supermarket chains and engaging in joint promotional efforts during the 1970s.
During the mid-1970s, there was a significant investment in modernization and rationalization in the production sector. The aim was to increase efficiency through volume production, with an expenditure of approximately ? 20 million between 1977 and 1980. A crucial element of the program involved concentrating production resources for different product groups at specific factories. For instance, fish products were manufactured in Hull and Grimsby, ready meals in Kirkby and Yarmouth, vegetables in Hull and Lowestoft, and cakes and desserts in Eastbourne. This strategic approach was prompted by the realization that specialized producers achieved considerably higher levels of automation.
The decision to merge Unilever’s two main frozen product operations, Birds Eye Foods and Walls Ice Cream, into one company, Birds Eye Walls Ltd, was motivated by the desire to reduce costs. In the 1960s, the possibility of collaboration and getting rid of duplicated functions between Birds Eye and Walls had already been recognized. However, prior to the merger, these two Unilever subsidiaries operated mostly independently.
Between 1979 and 1981, Birds Eye Walls focused on merging and streamlining the distribution networks of the two companies. On January 1, 1982, the refrigerated distribution company, Unicold-Walls, was handed over to Birds Eye Walls to expedite the distribution reorganization and enhance coordination. The goal was to finalize the distribution reorganization by early 1985, establishing a more efficient national network comprising seven regional distribution centers.
Despite Birds Eye’s attempts to adapt to changing market conditions, its market and financial performance worsened throughout the 1970s. However, in its 1979 Annual Report, Birds Eye highlighted that very few brands in the British grocery market could match its dominance in the frozen foods sector. Nonetheless, this leadership did not ensure growth and success. To combat increasing competition, Birds Eye chose to maintain its advertising budget during the mid-1970s while reducing prices on certain popular products.
Despite increasing the sales volume, this approach raised concerns.
