Today’s snacks don’t need to don fancy costumes or hide behind magical face paint to garner attention. They also don’t require stunts, tricks or fictional characters parading around the plaza.
That’s because many snacks maintain authenticity, originality, innovation and pizzazz. They are themselves, showing off their tried-and-true attributes, complete with hot and savory flavorings, convenient and easy-open packaging concepts and are on a mission to provide consumers the tastiest, yet healthiest snacks possible.
Whether it’s a beef jerky stick laden with hot spices, crackers that put the fun in functional, chips that feature a bevy of shapes, sizes and textures, pretzels that garner a new twist or those hybrid items that don’t yet seem to have a specific home on the shelf, the snack aisles are sure to be set ablaze with fun-filled options.
Figures don’t lie
According to Chicago-based SymphonyIRI Group, the salty snack arena remains the highest grossing segment in the snack industry, with $13 billion in 2010. Categories such as potato chips, tortilla/tostada chips and cheese snacks garnered a majority of the winnings, raking in $4.8, $3 and $1.2 billion, respectively.
The cracker category roped in $4.4 billion in sales, with all other crackers (excluding breadsticks, graham crackers, matzah, saltines and those with fillings) accounting for $3.1 billion in sales.
Snack nuts experienced $2.7 billion in sales while dried meat snacks saw $1.3 billion. Miscellaneous snacks, such as apple chips, carob-, yogurt- and chocolate-covered snacks, nutritional snacks and trail mix took in $606.8 million in sales.