Making a Push for the Home Dining Table: Leading Quick-Frozen Food Enterprises Break Through Industry's Low-Price Competition with "Quality Improvement, Efficiency Enhancement + Reduced Promotions"

Cailian Press, March 13 — (Reporter Wu Weiling) The ongoing price war in frozen foods is beginning to show cracks. Although overall industry prices still hover in the year-over-year decline range, with the rise of household consumption scenarios and consumer segmentation, leading frozen food companies are avoiding price competition by reducing promotional efforts and upgrading products.

According to interviews with Cailian Press, due to insufficient demand, industry competition remains fierce, and product prices continue to decline. “The shrinking demand in the catering channel is the main reason for the sluggish frozen food prices,” said a frozen goods wholesaler in Changsha to Cailian Press.

Offline retail monitoring agency Maxwin data shows that since January 2025, Maxwin’s price index (WPI) for frozen foods has remained below the baseline of 100 (an index of 100 indicates no change; below 100 indicates a year-over-year price decrease). In January and February 2026, the index for this category was 96.34 and 98.43, still in decline compared to last year.

However, the wholesaler further stated that although overall sales activity has not yet shown significant improvement, after a long price war, market demand has begun to differentiate. “This year, some products from Anjoy, such as beef meatballs and fish balls with stuffing, have seen small price increases, while low-end brands continue to lower prices. But low-end brands have low market recognition, and consumers may not necessarily buy the discounted products. Brands with strong effects like Anjoy and Sanquan will still pursue price increases.”

The reason leading companies can maintain stable prices is partly due to brand effects and partly due to product upgrades. An industry insider told Cailian Press that top companies are upgrading their products to achieve “invisible price increases.” “This mainly comes from changes in the form of terminal products, such as leading brands launching fresh-keeping packs, family packs, and other new products, significantly increasing the average price per kilogram compared to previous loose-weight prices.”

Recently, a Cailian Press reporter contacted Anjoy Food (603345.SH)’s securities department as an investor. Staff said that in January this year, the company reduced promotional efforts for some products, and some high-value-added products have received positive market feedback. “Currently, the consumer market is clearly segmented. High-end products like fresh-keeping packs still see growth, and products like hotpot family packs also have good market feedback, meeting our expectations. The Doudou grilled sausage is also helping to improve the overall gross margin of the grilled sausage category. Traditional categories like tangyuan and jiaozi face fierce competition, mainly focusing on promoting differentiated products.”

In a recent institutional research report, the company mentioned that in the current stock market, the effect of pure price wars is limited, and consumers are increasingly seeking a balance of “cost performance” and “quality-price ratio.” The company’s path to profitability is shifting from “cost reduction and efficiency improvement” to “quality and efficiency enhancement,” emphasizing product innovation and quality improvement to compete.

The rise of household scenarios also presents structural opportunities for frozen foods. It is reported that in the C-end market, hotpot ingredients, frozen sausages, and other snack products are becoming the main drivers of frozen food sales. Maxwin data shows that in Q4 2025, frozen food sales increased by 6.5% year-over-year. Among these, hotpot ingredients and frozen sausages grew 16.4% and 44.7% respectively, while staple products like frozen dumplings and tangyuan faced growth pressure.

“With the popularity of household appliances like air fryers acting as ‘guns,’ frozen foods are the ‘bullets,’” said the aforementioned industry insider to Cailian Press. The proliferation of household kitchen appliances like air fryers has promoted a “snackification” of home consumption scenarios. Frozen foods are evolving from “filling staple foods” to “snacks and desserts that enrich the dining table,” with consumers’ acceptance and willingness to pay for convenient, high-quality packaged foods rising in tandem.

Against this backdrop, leading brands are actively expanding into household scenarios, using high-margin products and direct sales channels as breakthroughs. Through product matrix iteration and upgrades, they are breaking the industry’s low-price competition.

Hain Foods (002702.SZ) mentioned in an institutional survey in January that the company is continuously refining its product matrix, phasing out low-margin, low-turnover SKUs, and focusing resources on core high-margin categories such as hotpot meatballs and high-end seafood, to optimize product gross margins.

Sanquan Food (002216.SZ) has entered the mainstream supermarket system, including Hema Fresh, to open up the household scenario market. According to the company, although customized product collaborations have lower gross margins, they require significantly less investment than traditional models, enabling stable profitability. Regarding growth prospects this year, Sanquan Food stated that it will continue to promote new product development and upgrades, enriching and iterating its product matrix; simultaneously, it will deepen customized cooperation in direct sales channels. The membership supermarket business is expected to see significant growth driven by product strength, service responsiveness, and operational improvements.

(Cailian Press, Wu Weiling)