Pilgrim’s Europe is an industry leading UK and European food company with over 40 facilities across the UK, Ireland, France and the Netherlands. They produce own label and branded fresh chicken, pork and lamb as well as authentic chilled and frozen ready meals, snacking ranges, added value and food service products.
“Lumina’s data has provided us with the clarity and confidence to engage customers more strategically and align our business plans with market reality” – Penny Francis, Senior Category Marketing Manager, Pilgrim’s Europe
The Challenge
Pilgrim’s UK, one of the largest food businesses in the UK, sought to strengthen its position across foodservice and convenience channels at a time of rapid market change. The business wanted to better understand the UK eating-out landscape, identify category opportunities, and support customer engagement with robust, evidence-based insights.
Despite strong in-house expertise, Pilgrim’s needed an external partner who could provide continuous market tracking, menu analysis, and competitor benchmarking to underpin commercial strategy and unlock new growth opportunities.
Why Lumina Intelligence?
Pilgrim’s partnered with Lumina Intelligence for access to its unique Eating & Drinking Out Panel, Menu Tracker, and Food Strategy Forum. These solutions offered:
- Consumer behaviour insight – 78,000 annual survey responses capturing who, where, why, and how consumers eat out.
- Menu benchmarking – Monthly menu scraping across 60+ leading operators, tracking price, range, and trend shifts.
- Operator performance data – Turnover and outlet metrics for 400+ brands, contextualised with market forecasts.
- Networking & thought leadership – Access to exclusive events and reports from Lumina’s Food Strategy Forum.
Together, these tools equipped Pilgrim’s with a 360-degree view of the market, from shopper missions to menu composition and operator growth
Our Approach
Lumina worked closely with Pilgrim’s stakeholders across Commercial, Strategy, and Category teams to design a market opportunity mapping programme.
Key steps included:
- Consumer insight analysis using our Eating & Drinking Out Panel data to profile Pilgrim’s core consumers and their behaviour.
- Menu and category review, benchmarking Pilgrim’s protein categories, and analysing menu dynamics.
- Operator landscape mapping, leveraging Lumina Intelligence’s Operator Data Index to assess where leading brands were winning.
- Consultancy & workshops to translate findings into clear commercial actions, aligned around a data-driven roadmap.
The Outcome
The partnership has enabled Pilgrim’s to:
- Quantify market opportunities in foodservice channels, supporting category investment cases.
- Optimise customer conversations by bringing data-led evidence into joint business planning.
- Benchmark pricing and NPD against competitors, informing menu strategy and product launches.
- Strengthen strategic foresight through access to quarterly debriefs, reports, and ongoing consultancy.
The Bottomline
How Lumina Intelligence helped Pilgrim’s Europe
Quantify market opportunities
Benchmark pricing and NPD
Strengthen strategic foresight
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