Frozen food brand Marie Callender’s joins Hungry-Man

CHICAGO — Marie Callender’s and HungryMan are joining together in a deal intended to create a bigger player in the frozen food aisle.

Conagra said Wednesday it is buying Pinnacle Foods for about $10.9 billion, citing in part the potential to capitalize on the recent resurgence of frozen food sales.

Conagra also owns the Banquet, Healthy Choice and Alexia frozen brands, while Pinnacle owns Birds Eye, Van de Kamp’s and Mrs. Paul’s. The companies also own other packaged food brands, such as Chef Boyardee, Reddi-Whip and Duncan Hines.

The deal comes amid optimism for supermarket freezer sections after years of disappointing sales. Kellogg reported a jump in frozen food sales earlier this year, citing more millennials focusing on healthier frozen food options. Conagra also said its frozen and refrigerated unit is seeing growth, and CEO Sean Connolly said the category is just starting to benefit from modernization.

But it’s not clear how far that growth can continue.

Dewey Warner, a research analyst with Euromonitor, said frozen food sales have improved in large part because manufacturers have finally invested in revamping “stale, processed, traditional TV dinners” to make them more on-trend with new flavors and simpler ingredient lists that seem less processed.

But Warner said the broader trend toward fresh foods might limit the long-term growth potential of the freezer brands. He noted that U.S. sales of frozen food meals last year were still below the 2010 level, even with the recent improvement.

Shareholders of Pinnacle will receive $43.11 per share in cash and 0.6494 shares of Conagra stock for each share of Pinnacle. The transaction also includes Pinnacle’s outstanding debt.