Waitrose puts £10m into ready meals: the new prices

Waitrose is putting £10m over three years into its biggest ever ready meal overhaul, starting with 29 new No.1 dishes and a 21 product takeaway range with an £18 meal deal for four.

Chandraketu Tripathi

Finance Editor, Kaeltripton

Published 12 Sep 2026

Last reviewed 12 Sep 2026

✓ Fact-checked

Press release + KT analysisUpdated 12 September 2026

Waitrose announced on 8 September 2026 a £10m investment over three years in its biggest ever improvement of ready meals, beginning with 29 new No.1 dishes and more than 30 refreshed recipes from 9 September in selected shops and on Waitrose.com. The launch includes a new 21 product No.1 Indian and South East Asian Food Lovers Takeaway range with an £18 meal deal of two mains and two sides serving four. Individual prices include No.1 Chicken Korma £6.50, Butter Chicken Masala £6.50, Chicken Rogan Josh £6.50, Makhani Paneer £6.00, Prawn Penang £7.00, Shanghai Beef £7.50, Beef Rendang £7.50, Coconut Rice £3.50, Jewelled Pilau Rice £3.60, Bombay Potatoes £4.50, Singapore Noodles £4.50 and King Prawn Toasts £4.50. The No.1 Italian range adds five dishes at £6.50 each, and the £15 No.1 Food Lovers Dine In for Two gives a main, a side and either a starter or dessert.

TL;DR · LAST REVIEWED Waitrose announced on 8 September 2026 a £10m investment over three years in its biggest ever improvement of ready meals, beginning with 29 new No.1 dishes and more than 30 refreshed recipes from 9 September in selected shops and on Waitrose.com. The launch includes a new 21 product No.1 Indian and South East Asian Food Lovers Takeaway range with an £18 meal deal of two mains and two sides serving four. Individual prices include No.1 Chicken Korma £6.50, Butter Chicken Masala £6.50, Chicken Rogan Josh £6.50, Makhani Paneer £6.00, Prawn Penang £7.00, Shanghai Beef £7.50, Beef Rendang £7.50, Coconut Rice £3.50, Jewelled Pilau Rice £3.60, Bombay Potatoes £4.50, Singapore Noodles £4.50 and King Prawn Toasts £4.50. The No.1 Italian range adds five dishes at £6.50 each, and the £15 No.1 Food Lovers Dine In for Two gives a main, a side and either a starter or dessert.

Waitrose announced on 8 September 2026 a £10m investment over three years in its biggest ever improvement of ready meals, beginning with 29 new No.1 dishes and more than 30 refreshed recipes from 9 September in selected shops and on Waitrose.com.
A new 21 product No.1 Indian and South East Asian Food Lovers Takeaway range spans mains, sides and snacks, with an £18 meal deal of two mains and two sides serving four.
Individual prices include No.1 Chicken Korma £6.50, Butter Chicken Masala £6.50, Chicken Rogan Josh £6.50, Makhani Paneer £6.00, Prawn Penang £7.00, Shanghai Beef £7.50, Beef Rendang £7.50, Coconut Rice £3.50, Jewelled Pilau Rice £3.60, Bombay Potatoes £4.50, Singapore Noodles £4.50 and King Prawn Toasts £4.50.
The No.1 Italian range adds five dishes at £6.50 each, and the £15 No.1 Food Lovers Dine In for Two gives a main, a side and either a starter or dessert.

KEY FACTS

Investment: £10m over three years, Waitrose's biggest change to ready meals
What lands now: 29 new No.1 dishes and more than 30 refreshed recipes from 9 September 2026
Takeaway meal deal: £18 for two mains and two sides, serving four, from a 21-product No.1 Indian and South East Asian range
Dine In: £15 No.1 Food Lovers' Dine In for Two: main, side and a starter or dessert
Single dishes: mains from £6.00 to £7.50; sides from £3.50
Category growth: Waitrose ready meal sales up 8% year on year, 11% across premium ranges, 23% higher on Fridays and Saturdays

What Waitrose announced

Release issued by the John Lewis Partnership media centre on 8 September 2026. Image supplied for media use and credited to Waitrose.

Waitrose announced on 8 September 2026 a £10m investment over three years in its biggest ever improvement of ready meals. The programme begins with 29 new No.1 dishes and more than 30 refreshed recipes from 9 September in selected shops and on Waitrose.com. The figure of 29 is the headline number for the first wave of the overhaul, and it sits alongside a wider refresh of existing lines rather than replacing them outright.

The scale of the investment is notable for a supermarket own label range. Almost half of Waitrose customers bought a ready meal in the past year, according to the company, and sales are up 8 per cent year on year. That growth rises to 11 per cent across premium ranges, and sales are 23 per cent higher on Fridays and Saturdays than the rest of the week. The pattern suggests the category is not a fallback for customers in a hurry but a planned part of the weekly shop, particularly at the end of the week.

Charlotte Di Cello, Chief Commercial Officer at Waitrose, said customers shop with Waitrose because they trust its commitment to taste, and that a night off from cooking should not mean compromising on quality. The launch therefore frames ready meals as a quality purchase rather than a convenience compromise, and the price points that follow are set accordingly.

The takeaway range and the £18 deal

The most prominent part of the launch is a new 21 product No.1 Indian and South East Asian Food Lovers Takeaway range. It spans mains, sides and snacks, so a full meal can be assembled from the range rather than mixing it with other lines. The centrepiece for families is an £18 meal deal of two mains and two sides serving four.

Named dishes in the range include No.1 Chicken Korma, Butter Chicken Masala, Chicken Rogan Josh, Makhani Paneer, Prawn Penang, Shanghai Beef, Beef Rendang, Coconut Rice, Jewelled Pilau Rice, Bombay Potatoes, Singapore Noodles and King Prawn Toasts. The mix of chicken, paneer, prawn and beef mains gives the range a broad spread, and the sides cover rice, potatoes and noodles, which means the two mains and two sides format can be built in several different ways.

The takeaway framing is deliberate. A delivered curry for four typically arrives as separate mains, rice and sides with service and delivery fees added, and the £18 deal is positioned against that basket rather than against a single ready meal. Whether it competes on price depends on what is being compared, which the analysis below sets out.

What the individual dishes cost

Individual prices in the takeaway range are No.1 Chicken Korma £6.50, Butter Chicken Masala £6.50, Chicken Rogan Josh £6.50, Makhani Paneer £6.00, Prawn Penang £7.00, Shanghai Beef £7.50 and Beef Rendang £7.50. Sides are Coconut Rice £3.50, Jewelled Pilau Rice £3.60, Bombay Potatoes £4.50, Singapore Noodles £4.50 and King Prawn Toasts £4.50. The mains cluster at £6.50, with paneer below and prawn and beef above, while the sides sit between £3.50 and £4.50.

The No.1 Italian range adds five dishes at £6.50 each: Smoked Pancetta Carbonara, Slow Cooked Beef & Chianti Pappardelle, King Prawn & Tomato Linguine, Nduja & Sausage Ragu Orecchiette and Butternut & Mascarpone Bucatini. The beef dish uses brisket cooked for six hours, which is the kind of detail that supports the premium positioning of the range and explains part of the price gap against standard own label ready meals.

Separately, the £15 No.1 Food Lovers Dine In for Two gives a main, a side and either a starter or dessert. It has been refreshed with Chicken Forestier, Breaded Somerset Camembert and Ultimate Apple Crumble, while Fish Pie, Beef Bourguignon and Wagyu Cottage Pie have been redeveloped. At £15 for two, that deal works out at £7.50 a head for three courses, which is a different proposition from the £18 takeaway deal for four.

Sourcing and recipe changes

Waitrose states that all chicken in the range meets Better Chicken Commitment standards, beef and lamb come from British farmers, and the seafood selection includes MSC certified fish and responsibly sourced prawns. These claims matter to the premium end of the ready meal market because they are the kind of detail that customers use to justify paying more than a standard own label price.

Existing Indian ready meals have more protein and now use only natural colourants such as paprika and saffron. The shift away from artificial colourants is a recipe change rather than a new product line, and it applies across the existing range as well as the new dishes. More protein in the same format is also a meaningful change for customers who treat a ready meal as a main meal rather than a side.

Taken together, the sourcing and recipe changes support the £10m investment figure. The money is not only going into new products but into reformulating what is already on the shelf, which is a slower and less visible process than a launch. For shoppers, the practical effect is that the range they already buy may have changed even if the packaging looks familiar.

Analysis

Kael Tripton analysis: deal, takeaway or cook it

At £18 for four people, the meal deal works out at £4.50 a head. A delivered curry for four comes in at roughly £12 to £15 a head once service and delivery fees are added, so the deal is materially cheaper than the takeaway it is named after. That comparison is the strongest case for the deal, and it holds as long as the alternative is a delivery order rather than a collection or a home cooked meal.

The individual prices matter because the deal only pays if two mains and two sides were being bought anyway. Two mains alone at £6.50 plus two sides at £4.50 comes to £22, so the deal saves £4 against buying those four items separately. But one main and one side is cheaper bought separately, because the deal requires the full four item basket. A household of two buying one main and one side would pay £11 separately against £18 for the deal, so the deal is not a universal saving.

Against cooking the same dish from scratch, the deal is well above the cost of the ingredients. A curry for four made at home from raw chicken, rice, spices and vegetables typically costs less than the £18 deal, though it requires the shopping, the cooking and the washing up. The honest comparison is therefore three way: the deal beats delivery on price, beats buying the same four items separately by £4, and loses to cooking from scratch on cost alone. The decision turns on whether the time saved is worth the difference, and on whether the basket matches the deal format.

Source: John Lewis Partnership media centre.

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DISCLAIMER

Prices, dishes and claims are from the Waitrose press release of 8 September 2026 and apply in selected shops and on Waitrose.com. Availability varies by store.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the Waitrose takeaway meal deal?

The No.1 Indian and South East Asian Food Lovers Takeaway meal deal is £18 for two mains and two sides, serving four. That works out at £4.50 a head.

How many new dishes is Waitrose adding?

Waitrose is adding 29 new No.1 dishes and more than 30 refreshed recipes from 9 September, as part of a £10m investment over three years.

What are the individual prices in the takeaway range?

Mains include No.1 Chicken Korma £6.50, Butter Chicken Masala £6.50, Chicken Rogan Josh £6.50, Makhani Paneer £6.00, Prawn Penang £7.00, Shanghai Beef £7.50 and Beef Rendang £7.50. Sides include Coconut Rice £3.50, Jewelled Pilau Rice £3.60, Bombay Potatoes £4.50, Singapore Noodles £4.50 and King Prawn Toasts £4.50.

Does the £18 meal deal save money?

It saves £4 against buying two mains at £6.50 and two sides at £4.50 separately, which comes to £22. It only pays if two mains and two sides were being bought anyway, because one main and one side is cheaper bought separately.

What is in the £15 Dine In for Two?

The £15 No.1 Food Lovers Dine In for Two gives a main, a side and either a starter or dessert. It has been refreshed with Chicken Forestier, Breaded Somerset Camembert and Ultimate Apple Crumble.

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