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The £10 ready meal opportunity: UK retail to see premium battle intensify

Premium ready meal innovation – with high-end meals retailing for £10 (around €12) – is heating up in the UK. What are the stand-out attributes for a winning product?

According to GlobalData, UK ready meals generated sales of £5 billion (€5.8bn) in 2025 following 5.2% CAGR between 2020 and 2025. And whilst 2025 represented the weakest year during the five-year period in performance terms, current business moves suggest that future innovation and growth is on the horizon.

At a glance:

• The UK's £5 billion ready meal category will see premium competition ramp up in the coming two years, as retailers and brands invest.
• According to an innovation expert, success will rely on quality products that offer convenience and value for money whilst offering a sense of occasion at home.
• Opportunities will span fridge, frozen, branded, own-brand, and chef-led but the true test will be in securing repeat purchases.

“The premium battle is intensifying”

In September, premium supermarket Waitrose & Partners announced plans to invest £10 million (€11.65m) over the next three years into revamping and expanding its ready meal offering. Premium frozen ready meal brand Cook also entered mainstream retail via the launch of its products onto online retail platform Ocado. And in August, UK meal kit company Gousto entered ready meals with the launch of its Heat & Eat microwave and oven-ready line. And with all of these products priced well above the standard supermarket ready meal price of £4 (€4.66), premium competition is clearly heating up.

“Premium ready meals and dine-in meal deals have already shown there's an appetite for a more special dinner at home. What I think is changing is how deliberately businesses are targeting that occasion,” said Liam Brown, food innovation expert and meals innovation lead at UK manufacturer Samworth Brothers. “I'd say the premium battle is intensifying,” Brown told Ingredients Network. “It's already happening and I'd expect competition to intensify over the next 12 to 24 months.”

Recent industry investments and launches are targeting the increasingly valuable space between the traditional £4 supermarket ready meal and £20 takeaways, he explained, where shoppers are looking for an elevated at-home dining experience within a reasonable price bracket. “Pressure on household budgets doesn't remove the desire for a treat,” he said. “A more expensive ready meal can still feel like good value if it delivers a special dinner for considerably less than going out. That's what makes the opportunity attractive: giving people a reason to spend more within the category while helping them spend less on the occasion.”

However, Brown said success in the premium ready meal category relies on products offering genuine quality, continued convenience, and good value for money. “I think the strongest opportunities will be meals that make dinner at home feel noticeably better, with very little extra effort by the customer.”

Charlie Bingham's, he said, is a standout example of a premium ready meal brand delivering on expectations; Wasabi is another strong example that proves a restaurant can translate its offering successfully into retail ready meals.

The challenge of creating a premium ready meal

First and foremost, though, Brown said a premium ready meal “must taste worth the money” and it must “cook reliably at home”. Meats need to be succulent, sauces have to offer real depth of flavour, and vegetables should have bite. “Delivering premium quality in a ready meal is difficult because the product has to perform through manufacturing, its shelf life, and reheating at home”.

In format terms, cooked meats with separate sauces and pickles, sharing centrepieces with sides, and pan-fried dishes that develop colour and texture all offer promise in the premium ready meal space, with room too for “familiar favourites executed exceptionally well”, he said.

When it comes to fridge versus freezer, Brown said there are opportunities in both aisles, though positioning differs. Chilled offerings suit spontaneous shoppers and are associated with freshness whereas frozen products provide reassurance of having a really good meal ready whenever it is needed, he said. “For premium frozen, the challenge is getting shoppers to see the freezer as somewhere to find a special dinner. For chilled, it's delivering on the quality expectations that freshness creates. In either aisle, the product has to prove its value once cooked.”

The real test centres on repeat purchase, he said. “A new brand or an interesting format can encourage someone to try it but they'll come back because the product delivered and felt worth the money. That's what will make this space commercially sustainable.”

Visibility for growth

Looking ahead, he said supermarkets will play an important role in making premium ready meals visible and helping shoppers understand why they're worth buying.

“One of the biggest challenges is reaching people who don't currently shop the aisle. Gondola ends, online discovery, and placement alongside complementary products can bring meals to their attention. Introductory promotions can encourage trial, but the communication needs to sell the food and the experience as well as the saving.”

Asked who will carve out the future of premium ready meals – supermarkets, brands, chefs, or celebrities – Brown said no one model will have a monopoly.

“Branded, chef-led, celebrity-fronted and own-label ranges can all succeed if the product delivers and if the price feels right. We spend a lot of time asking whether a product fits a brand; we should spend just as much time asking what the brand brings to the product.”