Popular snack chip, iconic sauce enter the pizza market

People love to say that even the worst pizza is still pizza. Technically, that’s true because we have no real standard for what counts as a pizza.

You can call your giant pile of lasagna on a crust, Chicago-style pizza, and nothing prevents the people at Stouffer’s from calling their French bread monstrosity pizza..

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It’s a very loose term whose boundaries are pressed by the contents of the frozen pizza aisle. This appears to be one of the most competitive spaces in the grocery store as there are tons of competitors.

You have your chains like California Pizza Kitchen, bringing a version of their pizza to the grocery store and you also have players that have build a reputation in the space like DiGiorno.

Frozen pizza is a very difficult market to crack because even some of the lesser players like Red Baron and Elio’s have been around for decades.

Clearly, some frozen pizza gets purchased to a nostalgia and not because it’s actually good. And, since most frozen pizza is eaten by kids, the standards are low.

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Breaking into the space, however, is incredibly challenging. Not only are there dozens of brands fighting for space in the freezer, every grocery chain has its own house brand.

Launching a new frozen pizza requires a gimmick. Two major national brands are taking very different approaches to leveraging their notoriety to become frozen pizza players.

Legendary sauce brand adds a pizza line 

Ragu has been around since 1937 and the iconic brand remains popular today. It’s a go-to brand for basic sauce needs that’s battling with Prego for the top position in the “I’m making pasta for a big group and want it to be fine” space.

Now, the company known as one of the core, basic sauce brands nobody has any real feelings about, has launched its own line of frozen pizza. The company has partnered with U.S. frozen-pizza maker Palermo Villa, Inc. and has an overly flowery description of its new frozen pizza brand extension.

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“This innovative partnership is a natural extension of the Ragu brand’s current sauce lineup that delivers great tasting, convenient, family-favorite foods at an affordable price, enhancing the Ragu brand’s commitment to its genuine Italian heritage and creating mouth-watering foods that the whole family enjoys,” it shared.

Ragu has remained affordable at a time when some higher end sauce brands have climbed over the $10 per jar price point.

The NEW Ragu Frozen Pizzas will be available at select retailers, with a suggested retail price of anywhere from $4.99 – 6.99 depending on location and market. The line includes:

• Ragu Cheese Pizza: Radu-inspired sauce—vine-ripened tomatoes and traditional spices on an airy pizzeria-style crust topped with rich whole-milk mozzarella, provolone and white-cheddar cheeses.
• Ragu Combination Pizza: a pillowy pizzeria-style crust topped with Ragu-inspired sauce, vine-ripened tomatoes and traditional spices, sumptuous whole-milk mozzarella, Italian sausage, and sliced pepperoni.
• Ragu Pepperoni Pizza: Ragu-inspired sauce, vine-ripened tomatoes and traditional spices on a delicious pizzeria-style crust topped with whole-milk mozzarella and savory sliced pepperoni.
• Ragu Supreme Pizza: a pizzeria-style crust topped with Ragu-inspired sauce vine-ripened tomatoes and traditional spices, whole-milk mozzarella, Italian sausage, sliced pepperoni, plus a colorful array of green and red peppers, black olives, and onions.

Popular snack chip adds pizza line

Taco Bell has taught us that snack chips are more versatile than we may have been led to believe. And while Doritos has capitalized on that the most, the fine folks at Cheez-it have done their part as well.

Like Ragu, Cheez-It has also partnered with Palermo Villa. Its partnership has led to Cheez-It Frozen Pizza, a 12 inch, ultra-thin, and crispy Original Cheez-It flavored crust made with 100% real cheese, “paired with your favorite pizza toppings to remind you of the irresistible, cheesy flavor you love.”

Cheez-It is owned by Kellanova, which used its Beanstalk exclusive global food and beverage licensing agency to create the partnership.

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Cheez-It Frozen Pizza is available now for a suggested retail price of $6.99 – $9.99 and can be found at select retailers nationwide, including Kroger, Ahold, HEB, Winn-Dixie, Wegman’s, and Food City. Product rollout begins in May and will widely expand by August.

The Cheez-It pizza lineup includes:

• Italian Four Cheese: A delightful blend of whole milk mozzarella, yellow cheddar, parmesan, and Romano cheeses with marinara sauce atop an ultra-thin, and crispy Original Cheez-It flavored crust.
• Pepperoni: Featuring whole milk mozzarella, yellow cheddar, pepperoni, and marinara sauce atop an ultra-thin, and crispy Original Cheez-It flavored crust, this flavor is sure to satisfy classic pizza cravings.
• Cheddar Jack Supreme: A hearty combination of pepperoni, Italian sausage, green and red peppers, black olives, onions, yellow cheddar, Monterey Jack, and marinara atop an ultra-thin, and crispy Original Cheez-It flavored crust.

“This starts with the crust which is like a large Cheez-It flavored cracker – crispy, cheesy, and square-shaped. It’s then topped with customer-favorite toppings that perfectly complement the crust,” said Palermo’s Chief Innovation Officer Nick Fallucca.

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