by Dad knew what to do after seeing what his children were eating.
Noel Davis, 50, who lives in Formby, has over 30 years’ experience in food manufacturing and distribution across a number of different businesses. He focused heavily on buying frozen products for Farmfoods and other outlets, often creating his own original brands.
In recent years, however, Noel has taken a different approach. Speaking to the ECHO, Noel said: “I started buying products from all over the world and packaging them under our own bands. We then opened our own stores under the ‘Oops.’ banner.”
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“When covid hit, especially with the high energy prices, we decided that instead of supplying into our own stores, we would supply our own range of frozen foods to independent stores, such as Stirling Meats. We were looking at hot food counters that sell things like salt and pepper chicken and chips.”
Oops Food Clearance located in Saint Helena, with the products made in the KP Frozen Food facility i Birkenhead. But it was when he saw what his children – Dara, 18, Aoife, 17 and Rory, 15 – had for tea that prompted a change in approach.
He said: “They tend to stick a chicken in the air fryer. I noticed they were doing it two or three times a night. The quantity and quality of the food – they were taking the products we were already providing and adding salt and paper seasoning, and the end product was amazing.
“Then I started reading the reports about 12.5m households using air fryers. It’s a great opportunity.”
As a result, under the MJ’s Diner brand, Noel created Air Fryer Ready Meals, which launched last Monday, April 8. Instead of buying products separately and putting them into an Air Fryer, these include all the ingredients needed for a meal in. bag stored in the freezer.
There are 14 different options available, including salt and pepper chicken, beef meatballs and chicken katsu curry. These all come with chips.
Noel claims these meals offer a much higher quality than microwave meals, and has already received positive feedback through free samples at the St Helens store and the 50,000 units supplied to Farmfoods. He argued that it was a “certainty” that they would succeed because of the quality that comes from using an air fryer. He said: “Traditional pre-prepared meals are produced using automated machinery where the product needs to be cooked in a microwave.
“They have to be sauce products, for example curry. You could never get a crispy ready meal. With the air fryer, you can. It just delivers a much better meal. It’s as good as any you’ll get from a chip shop.”
Noel claimed that despite only being launched one week ago, the meals are already popular. He said: “We took a range of 14 products and produced it in Birkenhead. Then we trialled it in St Helens.
“We sell a lot of frozen food. We have broken all kinds of records. As of last week, we are making seven to eight times more than best-selling products such as Bisto – products that have been on the market for many years.
“We expect it to be everywhere quickly. It is completely flying out. We need to get as much volume behind it before other big brands start copying it. We are absolutely the first. We had to recruit an extra 50 staff in Birkenhead to cope with the demand.
“The feedback we are getting is incredible. The reason others haven’t already done so is because they’ve spent a lot of money building premises focused on wet meals – based on sauce. To switch to our dry products, they don’t make much use of existing premises.”
Noel claims he is already in talks with the likes of Home Bargains, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s to supply Fryer Ready Meals there. New options are also on the way including a meal featuring kebab meat, chips and matcha sauce.
Noel admitted that he was surprised by the popularity of air fryers in recent years. He said: “When you look at any other gadget you see, they’re all gimmicks with a short lifespan.
“But because an air fryer does the same job as an oven more efficiently, quickly and simply to use, the growth of air fryers is not slowing down. It is so convenient for students or people living alone. It’s gone through the roof.”
Noel is grateful to have seen his children’s love for air resistors. He said: “For me, the fact that they were getting so much use out of the air fryer reaffirmed the convenience of the product as well as its quality.”
Air Fryer Ready Meals are available in a number of stores such as Farmfoods and at Oops Food Clearance at 1 Ardwick Street in St Helens.
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