Convenience stores operators getting help selling fresh prepared family meals.

European based Greencore is expanding in the US and plans to focus on the convenience store niche with high quality fresh prepared grocerant food that is better for you and portable.

“Greencore aims to build its Convenience Foods business in North America to the same scale as the current European business over the next 10 years. We will do this by taking a region by region approach. The first stage will be to grow the Home Made Brand Foods business in Newburyport (40 miles outside of Boston), where there is capacity and scope to more than double the size of the existing business to reach $100m sales.”

Tesco another European based company, that now has 159 Fresh & Easy units in the South West has “seen an incredible response to brand prepared foods” and is adding dozens of new products to its range, including FamilyValue packs. (The family-sized Four Cheese Meat Lasagne ($8.99) has been particularly popular, apparently.)

Mr Coveney of Greencore also thinks that one of the big trends in US prepared food is to “encourage family eating”, and notes that there is more of this in the UK too, partly because it makes the ready meal more affordable. Interestingly, the ready meal has proved to be relatively recession-proof, as shoppers perceive the increasingly high-quality fare on offer as an affordable treat – and an alternative to going out.

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