10 Largest Frozen Dinner Brands In The United States – Zippia

Stouffer’s. Solon, OH

Annual Revenue: $1.9 Billion
Parent Company: Nestlé

The origins of Stouffer’s brand can be traced back to 1898, when James Stouffer and his son Abraham founded the Cottage Creamery Company in Ohio. It began as a dairy company that quickly compiled a great deal of success.

In the 1900s, the business model took a turn towards restaurants specializing in sandwiches and homemade dutch apple pie. The store would sell prepared meals that people could take home and remake.

Once they entered the food realm, Stouffer’s expanded their brand outside of Ohio storefronts and started getting involved in frozen products in 1946. For the next twenty years, Stouffer gradually built their control in the microwavable foods market until the brand was purchased by the food and drink processing giant, Nestlé in 1973.

After being in business for well over a hundred years, the Stouffer brand continues to be the biggest band of frozen dinners in the United States.

Tyson Foods. Springdale, AR

Annual Revenue: $37.3 Billion
Parent Company: Tyson Foods, Inc.

Tyson is a meat processing brand that’s known especially for its selection of frozen products. Founded in 1935, Tyson’s success was greatly influenced by rationing during World War II that excluded chicken. Their brand provided the meat that everyone desperately wanted.

Tyson’s brand continued to steadily grow from this point to become a huge contributor to the frozen food industry. They’re most well-known for their frozen chicken nuggets, strips, and patties that come in various flavors. Tyson also controls several other frozen brands, such as:

• Jimmy Dean

• Hillside Farm

• Ballpark

• Wright

• State Fair

Tyson has remained one of the largest food producers in America for years and has ranked multiple times on the Fortune 500 list. While they’re a hugely influential meat producer, Tyson is only considered the second biggest frozen dinner brand because most of their revenue comes from non-frozen food.

Even so, Tyson is a big enough supplier to be considered one of the largest frozen dinner brands in the United States.

Amy’s Kitchen. Petaluma, CA

Annual Revenue: $750 Million
Parent Company: Amy’s Kitchen

The frozen meals of Amy’s are one of the few privately-held brands at play on the market. The brand continues to be family-owned today after being founded by Andy and Rachel Berliner in 1987.

The pair named the brand Amy’s after their newborn daughter to manufacture organic and non-GMO frozen food products. This is an objective that Amy’s brand has delivered on in spades.

Amy’s offers various more than 250 different foods, including pizza, burritos, soup, and veggie burgers. All their products continue to adhere to their original standards and cater to particular diets like gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan.

Amy’s brand was successful because its products did something that all its competitors weren’t doing; they used high-quality ingredients while still being fast and convenient frozen food.

Amy’s Kitchen capitalized when consumers were increasingly valuing these qualities in their food, and it secured them as one of the largest frozen dinner brands in America.

Bubba Foods. Loveland, CO

Annual Revenue: $35 Million
Parent Company: Hickory Foods, Inc.

Bubba Foods is famous for its top-selling frozen burger aptly named “Bubba Burger.” The brand was created by Walter “Bubba” Eaves, who used a unique method for freezing his burgers that allowed the meat to stay still juicy and tasty.

Additionally, the burgers produced by Bubba’s were known for using 100% USDA-choice beef ingredients that customers could taste the difference in.

Their distribution began in Southeastern grocery stores and slowly trickled to other states. Today, they can be found in American grocery locations across the country. The brand attributes its success to listing its products’ ingredients clearly on the packaging to earn its consumers’ respect and trust.

Their steady growth into large grocery store chains has made Bubba Foods one of the biggest frozen dinner brands available in America.

Hot Pockets. Solon, OH

Annual Revenue: $10 Million
Parent Company: Nestlé

The hand-held snack Hot Pockets have become a frozen meal staple of many households. The brand was devised by brothers Paul and David Merage under Chef America Inc. to combine a sandwich and a calzone that would remain crispy after being cooked for minutes in a microwave oven.

In 2002 the Hot Pockets brand was sold to Nestlé and was predicted to be a $2 billion category of frozen meals. Throughout the 2000s, Hot Pockets revamped their brand several times to try and foster a healthier image to consumers by removing artificial flavors and cutting the sodium out of their products.

While Hot Pockets didn’t quite live on to its initial revenue forecasting, it remains one of the largest frozen meal brands in the United States.

Lean Cuisine. Wilkes-Barre, PA

Annual Revenue: $4.4 Million
Parent Company: Nestlé

The Lean Cuisine brand was introduced in 1981 to serve as a healthy option instead of Stouffer’s frozen products. Due to FDA naming regulations, Lean Cuisine is required by law to meet the criteria of being less than 10 grams of fat, 4.5 grams of saturated fat, and 95 mg of cholesterol.

Their product line grew from containing ten items meeting these standards to over a hundred variations of frozen dinners. All of the Lean Cuisine meals are also required to fall into a particular calorie range that’s usually between 200-300.

Lean Cuisine took advantage of increasing demand in the frozen meal market for diet options. The brand was originally launched by Stouffer to fulfill this previously unmet desire. That tactic has worked wonders because Lean Cuisine is one of the most massive frozen dinner brands to date.

Marie Callender’s. San Diego, CA

Annual Revenue: $3.8 Million
Parent Company: Conagra Foods, Inc.

Marie Callender’s is a frozen food brand that specializes in desserts. The brand originated from its founder under the same name, who had created a local pie business from her kitchen. The business was eventually taken wholesale in 1948 by Callender’s husband and son, which led to Marie making over a hundred pies per day at one point.

In the 1960s, Marie Callender opened its first restaurant locations and widened its menu to include dinner items. These menu items became the frozen Marie Callender goods that you can find in grocery stores today.

These product licenses were sold to Conagra Foods in 1994 for $140 million and have managed to stay one of the largest American frozen meal brands in the country.

Hungry Man. New York, NY

Annual Revenue: $3.6 Million
Parent Company: Pinnacle Foods Group Inc.

The Hungry Man brand of frozen dinners supplies large portioned microwavable meals designed to fulfill even the grandest appetites. In an age when healthier food options are rising in popularity, the excessively unhealthy Hungry-Man brand that’s high in calories and saturated fat continues to experience steady revenue.

Hungry Man’s success, regardless of turns in the market, is attributed to the demographic that they target; young men.

Hungry Man has branded their frozen meals to convey the distinct message that their products have huge portion sizes that taste good. These are the two main qualities that young men who aren’t as health-conscious look for in their frozen dinners.

Focusing exclusively on this narrow target demographic has enabled Hungry Man to become one of America’s largest frozen dinner brands.

Healthy Choice. Chicago, IL

Annual Revenue: $3.2 Million
Parent Company: Conagra Foods, Inc.

Healthy Choice was a frozen food division established by Conagra Foods after their CEO, Charles Harper, suffered a heart attack. After being forced to change his diet dramatically, Harper was inspired to create healthy options from Conagra. Thus, Healthy Choice was born in 1989.

The brand is one of the main competitors to other providers of healthier frozen dinners, like Lean Cuisine. Their goal was to make quick and healthy food more accessible to people. In addition to frozen dinners, Healthy Choice also sells options like cold cuts, soups, and side dishes.

In recent years, Healthy Choice has committed its brand to sustainability by sourcing its ingredients from vetted local American farmers and using plant-based fiber packaging. Their devotion to developing their healthy and ethically sourced products has made Healthy Choice one of today’s largest frozen dinner brands.

Smart Ones. El Paso, TX

Annual Revenue: $1.1 Million
Parent Company: The Kraft Heinz Company

Smart Ones was a brand of The Kraft Heinz Company that emerged when they noticed the lucrative nature of healthier frozen foods. It was originally launched to be a subset of Weight Watchers that provided frozen entrees. The brand offers an assortment of frozen products, from breakfast and dinners to snacks and desserts.

All of their products are created with the intention of including high-quality ingredients that maintain taste and convenience. The brand also took advantage of the weight management market by adhering to portion control in their products. After receiving backing from Oprah in 2015, Smarts One’s brand was greatly boosted.

Smart Ones’ has secured itself as one of the biggest brands of frozen dinners by cashing in on the trend for healthier options and securing an image of reliability with valuable endorsements.