A father knew what to do when he saw what his children were eating.
Noel Davis, 50, from Formby, has over 30 years’ experience in food production and distribution across many different businesses. He focused mostly on purchasing frozen products for Farmfoods and other outlets, often creating his own original brands.
But the last few years have seen Christmas take a different approach. Speaking to the ECHO, Noel said: “I started buying products from all over the world and packaging them under our own belts. “We later opened our own stores under the ‘Oops’ banner.”
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“When Covid hit, especially due to high energy prices, we decided to supply our own frozen food range to independent shops such as Stirling Meats, rather than supplying our own stores. We were looking at hot food stalls selling things like salt and pepper chicken and chips.”
Where is Oops Food Clearance located? St Helens, With products produced in the KP Frozen Food facility Birkenhead. But noticing what her children (Dara, 18, Aoife, 17, and Rory, 15) were drinking for tea led to a change in approach.
He said: “They tend to put the chicken in the air fryer. I noticed they did this two or three times a night. Volume and quality of food; They would take the products we already supplied and add salt and paper seasoning and the final product was amazing.
“Then I started reading reports that 12.5 million households use air fryers. “This is a huge opportunity.”
As a result, Noel created Air Fryer Ready Meals under the MJ’s Diner brand, which launched on Monday, April 8. Instead of purchasing individual items and putting them in the Air Fryer, these contain all the ingredients needed for a meal at once. a bag stored in the freezer.
14 different options are offered, including salt and pepper chicken, beef meatballs and curry katsu chicken. These all come with chips.
Noel claims these meals offer much higher quality than microwave meals and has already received positive feedback, thanks to free samples at its St Helen’s store and 50,000 supplied to Farmfoods. He argued that it was “sure” they would be successful because of the quality that comes with using an air fryer. He said: “Traditional ready meals were produced using automatic machines where the product had to be cooked in the microwave.
“There should be sauce-based products like curry. You can never have a crispy ready meal. You can do this with an air fryer. It just offers a far superior meal. “It’s as good as you can get from a chip shop.”
Noel claimed that despite the launch only a week ago, there was already huge demand for the dishes. “We took a range of 14 products and produced them in Birkenhead. Then we trialled them in St Helens.
“We sell a lot of frozen food. We’ve broken all kinds of records. Since last week, we’ve been selling seven to eight times more than best-selling products like Bisto, which have been around for many years.”
“We expect it to be everywhere pretty quickly. It definitely flies by. We need to build as much volume behind it as possible before other big brands start copying it. We are definitely the first. We have had to hire an extra 50 staff in Birkenhead to keep up with demand.
“The feedback we’ve received is incredible. The reason others haven’t done this yet is because they’ve spent a lot of money building facilities for sauce-based wet dishes. If we look at the dry products we have, they don’t have much use in the existing facilities.”
Noel claims it is already in talks with companies including Home Bargains, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s to supply Air Fryer Ready Meals. New options, such as a meal containing kebab meat, chips and matcha sauce, are also on the way.
Noel admitted that he was surprised by the popularity of air fryers in recent years. He said: “When you look at the other devices you see, they are all gimmicks with a short lifespan.
“But the growth in air fryers won’t stop, as the airfryer does the same job as the oven much more efficiently, faster and easier. It’s well-suited for students or those who live alone. It’s gone through the roof.”
Noel is grateful that he noticed his children’s love for air fryers. “For me, the fact that they use the air fryer so much reiterated both the usefulness and quality of the product.” said.
Air Fryer Ready Meals are available in a variety of stores including Farmfoods and Oops Food Clearance at 1 Ardwick Street in St Helens.
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