New product development during inflationary times: the case of ready meals

New product development (NPD) is one of the most important activities on the operation of food supply chains and their constituting firms. Food companies introduce new products to enhance their competitive position or even to survive. The purpose of this work is to explore NPD behaviour in the context of the inflationary pressures of the period of 2021 to 2023. The focus is on the ready meals category, one of the most dynamic food categories in developed countries and also negatively associated with ultra-processed foods. The analysis used Mintel’s Global New Product Development (GNPD) UK dataset covering the period 2001 to 2023. Two aspects were analysed: (1) the distribution of introductory prices; and (2) the attributes highlighted by the firms in their products. To gain deeper understanding, the information was broken down by private label and branded products. The results indicate that the distribution of prices per 100 grams in 2021-23 was slightly different than 2016-19 and there was a positive growth on products with the economy attribute. Nevertheless, neither the product prices nor the attributes changed much with respect to the pre-inflationary period.