Driving retail growth in the "Fast Food Nation".

It's aces for the state of the frozen and refrigerated foods retail sector in the USA, which was declared healthy and wealthy by ACNielsen's Todd Hale in Las Vegas during the NFRA Convention. And by the way, hats off to Nevin Montgomery and his organizing team for successfully attracting 1,200 registered delegates to Nevada, which amounted to the highest number of professionals attending such a gathering in North America since 1996.

Hale, a senior vice president with the market research company, stated that the $74.7 billion retail frozen and refrigerated foods segment was second only to dry grocery in departmental sales year, registering growth of 3% during the 52-week period ending July 12. Frozen pizza and frozen novelty sales were ranked as fifth and eighth in the "Top 10" of frozen/refrigerated categories, ringing up $2.92 billion and $2.41 billion, respectively.

"Retailers can grow their sales by increasing their shopper base, driving shopping frequency and building shopping baskets," said Hale. This can best be accomplished by leveraging categories and brands that impact one or more of these components.

The following frozen food categories are regarded as strong to moderate basket drivers, based on the average dollar amount exacted per purchase occasion: unprepared meat and seafood, $7.82; prepared foods, $7.27; pizza and snacks, $5.75; ice cream, $4.49; novelties, $4.16; meal "garters, $3.77; baked goods, $3.59; breakfast foods, $3.52.

The ACNielsen executive said that Wal-Mart is having a "huge impact" in driving sales, as volume movement there has climbed 23.4% to $48.1 billion. The world's leading retail chain, which is expanding at a rate of almost one new store per day, is planning to open 220 to 230 supercenters in the USA during fiscal year 2004.

However, it is dollar stores that are proliferating the most, with 600 more units becoming operational during the first six months of 2003. Furthermore, fully one-third of the 6,114 Dollar General outlets doing business last year had refrigerated cabinets or coolers on the premises.

While dollar stores are geared toward low income households, they are also pulling in high income consumers looking for bargains. The same can be said for Aldi, the international discount retailer from Germany which has successfully Crossed the Atlantic and now operates 671 stores stretching from the East Coast of the United States to the Kansas heartland.

Among operators on the high end of niche retailing in America is Trader Joe's, which in essence is a big convenience store that targets upper income households. An estimated 60% of its shoppers have earnings of $50,000 or more per year.

"If you don't have an ethnic program today, you are missing out" on a sure bet, Hale told delegates at the Las Vegas convention. "One in five of us isn't speaking English at home anymore. More people are considered linguistically isolated because of limited English, which can hinder activities like grocery shopping."

Noting that the Hispanic population in the United States will grow by 49% to 55.2 million between 2001 and 2020, Hale added that the Spanish-speaking demographic base (which now numbers 37 million) is expanding well beyond urban centers. At the moment, though, nearly half of all Hispanics in the USA reside in six cities Chicago, Houston, San Antonio, Miami, New York and Los Angeles.

The African-American community will continue to offer frozen food producers growth opportunities, as its population is expected to rise by 23% to 44.7 million between now and 2020. During the same period, the Asian-American population (which is the best educated and has the highest per capita income among America's ethnic groups) will increase by 78% from 11 million to 19.6 million.

Retail sales of Oriental frozen entrees were up 10% to $508 million last year, though most of the purchases were probably made among non-Asian households. This category is largely represented by Americanized versions of Chinese and other East recipes, which are generally quite far removed from the real thing in flavor profile.

Finally, the "speed of life" in America's fast lane continues to bode well for producers of convenience foods that fuel the "Fast Food Nation's" on-the-go-getters. Americans outpace the world when it comes to time spent on the job, with the average worker putting in 1,979 hours per annum. That compares with 1,842 hours worked by Japanese people, and 1,480 by Germans. Furthermore, Americans toil six weeks more a year than was the case 20 years ago, and 37% of the population labors more than 50 hours a week Some of them am hard at work producing the frozen and refrigerated home meal replacements that am nourishing the others. Americans are so time-crunched these days, it would seem, that many of them can't even bother with making salads at home anymore. Purchases of preset fresh salad mixes in 2002 topped $2 billion, up 12% over the year before.

The same trends are taking hold in much of Europe, and increasingly am emerging in East Asia as well. Just look at the Oishi Group. The Thai-owned Japanese-style restaurant chain aims to expand it business by going into retail frozen food. From Bangkok and Beijing to Barreiros and Barcelona, the world is increasingly warming up to the frozen cuisine scene.

See You at WFLO Brussels Meeting and Elsewhere

The New Year has barely begun, and QFFI's travel schedule is rapidly filling up. Yours truly will be hitting the road for three weeks starting Jan. 24 on a trip that will take me to frozen food factories and marketing offices in the UK, Ireland, Belgium, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany and the Netherlands.

If you will be anywhere near Brussels on Feb. 2 and 3, please think about attending the World Food Logistics Organization's Education Program at the Hotel Bedford. I'll be moderating a panel discussion on cold storage logistics and the frozen food industry. Among executives offering insights will be Dirk Jan de With of Unilever ice Cream & Frozen Foods Europe, Ross Hunter of McCain Europe, and Herwig Dejonghe of Pinguin.

For registration information, contact Theo van Sambeeck, director of the IARW/WFLO's European Division (Phone: [phone]; E-mail: [e-mail]).