After Barilla, Findus also lowers its prices. To meet consumers who have lost purchasing power due to inflation, the brand – owned by the British Nomad Foods – has chosen one of its best-known products, cod fish sticks: the list price for the whole of 2024 will be reduced by 20%. The campaign started a week ago and in some large-scale retail chains the reduction is already visible on the shelves.
«For us the Sticks are a symbol – says Renato Roca, country manager of Findus Italia since last summer – they are produced in Italy, in the Cisterna di Latina factory, and alone represent 13% in value and 10% in volume of the our turnover”. The choice to work on prices to encourage consumption is not a decision made only in 2024: «In September last year – says Roca – we decided to invest in promotional leverage to lower the prices of the fish category, one of the most affected from the rush of inflation. In October we also joined the anti-inflation shopping cart wanted by the government, reducing the price per kilo of Croccole by 7-8%.
2023 was not an easy year, the drop in consumption was also felt in the frozen food sector: “The balance between volume and value was difficult, we recorded a drop in volumes”, admits the CEO of Findus, which with retail sales last year in Italy grossed 665 million euros. The lockdown had significantly relaunched the frozen food sector, and in some ways the long wave has remained, allowing this category of products to resist the impact of inflation better than others. But this doesn’t mean that there hasn’t been an impact: “We resisted – says Roca – now we want to grow again”.
The increase in costs has not spared Findus: «The increases have not completely disappeared in 2024 – says Roca – as regards the raw materials we use, we are not yet faced with a decrease in costs, but only a decrease their growth rates. For this reason, over the last 5 years we have invested 28 million euros in improving the efficiency of our factory in Cisterna di Latina, where over 80% of the frozen foods we sell in Italy are produced, for a total of 104 items. For example, to reduce energy costs, we built a 2 MegaWatt solar system.”
Over the past two years, as their purchasing power has declined, consumers have cut back on fish consumption in favor of less expensive proteins. «We want to get them back to consuming more fish – says the Findus country manager – which is why we decided to keep the price down. At the same time, however, we will also expand the range of chicken-based products, which is one of the cheapest proteins that consumers have flocked to recently.”
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