I’ve long felt that the food industry presents the best of all worlds. Tradition holds considerable strength in food. A handful of cornerstone companies continue to drive the lion’s share of revenue across snack and bakery. These are tried-and-true brands that resonate with shoppers the world-over. Oftentimes, select brands lead their category by a significant margin. They’re household brands, and everyone knows them.
But even at such a high level, innovation continues. While the steady ships stay their courses, brand extensions related to better-for-you, allergen-free, clean-label and dialed-in demographic appeal drive incremental growth. Categories grow more diverse, and shopper baskets grow larger. Even iconic elven bakery mainstays like Keebler continue to innovate, as we see in the increasingly popular clean-label Cookie Thins line, our bakery winner of the Best New Snack & Bakery Products of 2016.