The fresh approach to frozen food

Global frozen food products manufacturer Findus’ Swedish activities have not only a long history in the region but also a clear focus on offering products that meet the demands of today’s consumers. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to Findus Sverige AB’s sales director, Patrik Niklasson, to find out how this is being achieved.

Founded in 1941 in Bjuv, Sweden, Findus Sverige AB is a key part of the global Findus Group, a leading frozen food and groceries provider with both retail and foodservice presence. Alongside other strategic Findus locations in the Nordics, UK and southern Europe, the Swedish operation is carefully developed to deliver a reliable local service that meets the needs of its local customers, while still adhering to the strict quality standards of the Findus Group.

Sales director for Findus Sverige AB Patrik Niklasson appreciates how the various locations of the company work together to deliver the best possible service and product quality. He told Industry Europe, “The Findus Group is based in London and the international offices work in clusters so that we can be targeting the local audiences. Findus Sverige is active within the Nordic region cluster alongside the UK cluster and France/Spain and we can all share information that is relevant across the cluster and have our own locally specific trends and profiles. As such, we can deliver a varied product range that addresses the individual tastes and preferences of our local audiences while still utilising the Group power of Findus, which gives our consumers the best of both worlds – wherever they are in the world!”

Plenty of choice

The Findus product range includes frozen food such as ready meals, vegetables, fish and bakery, and groceries including mayonnaise, soup, pasta sauce and jams. Findus is perhaps most famous for its frozen fish, offering both fish portions and fish in various flavoured sauces and coatings. Mr Niklasson added, “A key part of our strategy is to ensure that we continue to offer freshly frozen fish and

vegetables which can either be used for people to cook from scratch, such as individual portions of frozen fish or high-quality frozen peas, or products which have been carefully created to make cooking at home easier, such as fish in a tasty sauce.

The healthy aspect of Findus’ products is a major ingredient in its sales and marketing communication, not least because frozen products often contain considerably more nutrients than poorly kept fresh products, particularly vegetables. Mr Niklasson continued, “Our fish is frozen as soon as possible, which retains all its nutrients as well as keeping it wonderfully fresh until the consumer wants to cook it. Here at Findus we are committed to sharing the benefits of frozen products as they are sometimes seen as ‘second to fresh’ whereas actually they can be tastier, healthier and often cheaper. Our corporate policy “Vision Zero” also plays a part in this as it highlights our work towards delivering products without additives. Also, our frozen food is without preservatives since freezing is the natural way to preserve food. We’re bringing this message to the consumer to make sure that frozen food products get the credit they deserve.”

Findus also works actively with purchasing raw material from sustainable sources. Findus was first with introducing climate certified vegetables on the market in 2011 and aim to have 100 per cent MSC certified fish in its range 2012.

The cost-effective benefit of buying frozen food is also clearly evident when it comes to the reduced waste. With Sweden ahead of even the wasteful UK when it comes to throwing away food, the message from Findus is clear – frozen food is not only often cheaper to buy in the first place but it is also very effective in reducing food waste as you only cook what you need and keep the rest frozen.

Mr Niklasson said, “Frozen food represents great value – you can happily store food in your freezer for 12 months when you know it has been frozen as soon as it was caught or picked. We are also careful to manufacture our ready meals and ready-to-cook prepared frozen products just as you would at home – our mashed potato for example is just potatoes cooked in hot water with a little salt, then mashed with butter and milk. So we help our consumers save time while giving them complete peace of mind that we’re giving them food that’s just as nutritious and carefully prepared as though they’d made it themselves.”

Positive outlook after a challenging market

With Findus Sverige experiencing a challenging market for fish and vegetables during the global economic downturn, Mr Niklasson is confident that the steady increase is set to continue, particularly as the company has made a concerted effort in its marketing to highlight the cost and nutrition benefits of frozen products. While the FMCG sector in general has seen issues in 2011 – the first reduced sales in the sector for many years – the company’s latest introductions to its portfolio address the current demands of its customers, such as more one-portion meals and additional lighter choices.

Mr Niklasson concluded, “We expect 2012 to be a positive year, with our new products sitting neatly alongside our famous offer of frozen fish and vegetables. We are confident that consumers are coming back and optimistic about our organic growth thanks to our ‘pure good food’ promise.” n