Psst . . . wanna buy a frozen food business? If so, lucky you; it's a buyer's market. In the space of about a week, two big companies, Unilever and H. J. Heinz, have put their European frozen food operations on the block, saying they want to focus on their faster-growing core products.

Fair enough. Frozen foods are not exactly a high-growth category. Europeans see them as a bit old-fashioned compared with newer chilled products and, rightly or wrongly, perceive chilled foods as healthier. Plus, supermarket own-label versions of frozen food staples such as fish fingers and peas have eaten into brand-owners' sales.