Goodfella’s pizza relaunch a flop

Northern Foods said the £5 million relaunch of its Goodfella's pizza brand had flopped amid "disappointing" sales across its frozen food business.

The brand has been under pressure from price-cutting rivals and the firm said the investment was "not yet delivering profitable sales growth".

Northern's pre-tax profits fell 26% to £9.6 million in the six months to October 2. Sales of frozen products declined by 24% to £94.7 million while the division made a £4.6 million operating loss, compared with a £5.1 million profit last year.

The deficit came despite a TV advertising campaign featuring a "Pizza Fairy" character - a waiter wearing angel wings and waving a magic wand - which helped to increase Goodfella's market share from 16% to 20%.

However, sales were not enough to offset the £5 million spend on advertising and new products.

Last month Northern launched an advertising campaign with comedy duo Alexander Armstrong & Ben Miller to push its McDougall frozen pies.