Deep Freeze
Don't let the name fool you. Frozen foods are hot.
Clarence Birdseye must have known what he was doing when he
first conceptualized pre-packaged, frozen foods more than 60 years
ago. Somehow, the budding entrepreneur, who back then patented
several of his food-freezing ideas, clued in to the fact that
Americans love a home-cooked meal--but they also love popping
something in the microwave and kicking off their shoes while dinner
is "served." Yes, The Birdseye Frosted Food Co. was
destined for success even before microwaves became second
nature.
Through the years, other entrepreneurs have followed suit and
helped build a behemoth industry that now gathers $60 billion in
annual retail and food-service sales. And while most of those sales
derive from the Fortune 500s, there's still plenty of room for
entrepreneurs to step up to the frozen-food plate.
"What's driven frozen-food sales is new-product
introduction," says Steven C. Anderson, president and CEO of
the National Restaurant Association. "A lot of the sales come
from larger companies, but a lot also come from entrepreneurs who
have a good niche product."
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"Niche"--your biggest weapon against the frozen food
giants--is the key here. Consider, for instance, the healthy
children's cuisine of Fran's Healthy Helpings, the
vegetarian entrees of Amy's Kitchen Inc. or the gourmet
appetizers of Nancy's Specialty Foods.
"As a $60 million company, we don't have the muscle to
compete with the big guys--we're a little fish in a big
pond," says Nancy's Specialty Foods creator Nancy Mueller
of her Newark, California, company. "We compete by having a
distinctive product. If we introduced a product that was already in
broad distribution, we'd be stomped out like ants. But the
quiche business is small enough that the large companies leave us
alone."
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