Baking & Snack - April 2024 - 34

TAPPING INTO PEOPLE'S
Despite economic headwinds, the snack industry pushes ahead with
innovation that sparks curiosity and renews untold avenues for growth.
by Dan Malovany
Retailers are now
more receptive to new
products as companies
seek to further energize
the snack market.
©Finepoints-stock.adobe.com
S
Sooner or later, it had to happen. Something had to give.
What goes up eventually settles down, even in the most resilient
of markets. That's exactly what occurred in the snack
industry, which flourished during the past few years with
double-digit dollar sales gains and robust unit growth.
Granted, today's situation is anything but dire. People
are still snacking at record high frequencies, often three to
five times daily. That's powered salted snack sales, which
posted a 6.9% dollar rise with more than $31.1 billion in
annual sales, according to Circana data for the 52 weeks
ending Jan. 28. However, unit sales slipped 0.5% for salty
snacks. In many categories, though, those units fell even
more, indicating that the recent boom in retail space has
lost some of its luster and not only for core salty items.
In the broader snack aisle, which includes cookies,
crackers, bars, fruit chips and others, sales reached $51.7
billion, up 4.6% while units tumbled 2.1%, according to
Circana.
" During the pandemic, snack sales were fantastic, "
observed Linsey Herman, vice president of product development,
Factory Innovation LLC, Bethlehem, Pa., a
consulting company in the food and beverage industry.
" Everybody was staying at home. They weren't going to
restaurants. A lot of those dollars were transferred to inhome
eating. Now restaurants are open again, and there
are more opportunities to eat away from home, and
there's just more opportunity in foodservice. "
34 Baking & Snack April 2024 / www.bakingbusiness.com
In many categories, the dynamics of the situation are
quite fluid, noted Mark Singleton, vice president of sales
and marketing, Rudolph Foods, Dallas. The pork rind category,
for instance, saw dollar sales, unit sales and volume
slip as a whole, but it's not a one-size-fits-all market.
" According to the data, it's not a static situation across
the country as far as the pork rinds category, " he explained.
" We're seeing some real strength in high-density
Hispanic areas and in the South. However, we're seeing
some areas of weakness in the Northeast that can be
attributed to a lack of keto focus with new consumers. "
Mostly, Singleton added, snack producers have experienced
softness with conventional grocery stores, particularly
in urban areas where retailers are dependent on
more snack dollars to contribute to the revenue in their
stores.
" Hopefully, the weakening of inflation pressures over
the last couple years will allow for some investment in
promotions that spark unit volume, " he said.
Such weakness in unit and volume is not only impacting
snack categories. It's happening across most of the
food and beverage industry. Sally Lyons Wyatt, global
executive vice president and chief advisor, consumer
goods and foodservice insights, Circana, suggested
multiple factors are at play, including food inflation
over the past two years and consumers now seeking
to economize.
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