Nestlé To End Sales Of Popular Frozen Pizza And Meal Brands In Canada
When comfort food comes to mind, there's a good chance the first thing you're thinking about is pizza. On a Friday night after a long week — or a Wednesday night after coming home late — frozen pizzas can make dinnertime a whole lot easier for home cooks. Ready-to-heat frozen meals can be a similar lifesaver. One food manufacturer has both arenas nailed: Nestlé. It's the parent company of the fan-favorite Stouffer's mac and cheese, too. When Stouffer's released the "Mac on Tap" (an appliance that dispenses hot mac and cheese dispenser) in 2020, one fan Tweeted: "I will use my child as an excuse to have one of these in my kitchen. It will be difficult to explain the second one that sits on my bedside table." Pizza, mac, and freezer meals are the unofficial trifecta of ultimate comfort foods, and Nestlé has it covered — that is, until recently.
It's been a killer year for Nestlé. Its impressive portfolio of brands includes Cheerios, Nesquik, Coffee-Mate, DiGiorno, Carnation, Häagen-Dazs, KitKat, Toll House, Perrier, Gerber, Purina, and Fancy Feast, among others. In October 2022, Nestlé reported a nine-month organic growth of 8.5% across geographies and categories. Total sales over the same period hit a whopping $75.6 billion, demonstrative of 9.2% growth.
Unfortunately, despite that growth, Nestlé has some bad news for Canadian mac and cheese fans — and if frozen pizzas are your go-to dinner on busy weeknights, the news is pretty lousy for you, too.
The company sets its sights in a new direction
Across Canada, four frozen meals and frozen pizzas made by Nestlé are getting 86'ed. In a press release on Wednesday, Nestlé announced that it is actively dwindling down its inventory of frozen products across its Canadian market and will soon phase them out altogether. According to its website, Nestlé products can be found in just shy of 190 countries — but six months from now, Delissio, Stouffer's, Lean Cuisine, and Life Cuisine will be nowhere to be seen in Canadian grocery stores. (Cue the tumbleweed.)
Why? According to the press release, the move is a "reinvestment strategy." Nestlé plans to allocate the money and focus on its lineup of ice creams, baby foods, pet foods, water, and health science products, all of which the company says "support long-term business growth." As devastating as it will surely be for diehard Delissio fans, the move might be coming at opportune timing. In September 2022, BuzzFeed reported a lineup of grocery items folks say they're passing up on due to inflation, and frozen pizzas were near the top of the list. "It's cheaper to just get Domino's or Little Caesars," wrote one commenter. Plus, if you happen to live in NYC, you're never far from a dollar slice. Looking forward, Nestlé announced that it would be focusing on "smeals" in 2023. The company defines "smeals" as "snacks that are substantial enough to count as a mini-meal," like its iconic Hot Pockets.