The hottest new products from PizzaExpress debuted in the freezer cabinets of Iceland Foods stores in the United Kingdom on September 7. The London-headquartered restaurant chain’s foray into the frozen food market follows successful distribution of a separate chilled and ambient pizza line at Sainsbury, Waitrose, Tesco and other retail outlets in Britain.
Iceland Foods is the exclusive distributor of the PizzaExpress Artisana assortment of 11 frozen products, which boasts five sourdough base pizza offerings, three ready meals and three gelato desserts.
Artisana pizza offerings range from Caprina (topped with goat’s cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, pesto and passata) and Pomodoro Pesto (creamy mozzarella, semi-dried tomato, basil and pesto) to Pepperoni Doppio (topped with soft pepperoni and mozzarella), Hawaiian (smoked ham with sweet pineapple chutney), and Polpette Bolognese (combination of beef meatballs, roquito peppers and mozzarella).
The pizza is being rolled out at a special introductory price of two packs for £5, or £3 for one.
The Artisana ready meals lineup features Prawn Linguine (king prawn linguine pasta with cherry tomatoes in white wine, accented with garlic and chili), Baked Melanzane (layers of aubergine, cheese and béchamel sauce with tomatoes, topped with cheese and herb crumb) and Tripolene Bolognese (a ragu sauce made with minced beef, red wine, mushrooms and dried porcini mushrooms with a tripolene pasta).
Last but not least, the Artisana Gelato range offers three sweet treats: Chocolate Fudge Cake, Sicilian Lemon Ripple and Tiramisu.
“We are really excited to launch this new frozen range with Iceland. We’ve had great success with our current chilled range and moving into the frozen category allows us to cater for more customer needs,” said Matt Ward, the commercial controller at PizzaExpress.
“We have recognized the opportunity to raise the bar on quality in the frozen category, while complementing our existing chilled proposition. By merchandising the frozen range together we are also allowing the customer to enjoy a complete meal experience at home,” he added.
Founded in 1965 by Peter Boizot, PizzaExpress operates over 400 restaurants throughout the United Kingdom as well as 40 overseas units in continental Europe, Hong Kong, India and the Middle East. In 2014 the company was sold to Hony Capital, a Beijing, China-headquartered private equity firm owned by Legend Holdings, for £900 million (approximately $1.54 billion).
