New-look Penn State cashes in on chips

Pretzel brand Penn State has been relaunched and repositioned as a range of classic American snacks.

The brand is being expanded to include 150g bags of corn chips in Sour Cream & Jalapeño and Buffalo Wing-flavours. They roll out next week in Sainsbury’s and Tesco alongside new-look packs of its pretzel lines.

Producer Intersnack said it hoped the NPD would mark a step change for the brand, which was launched in 1996 and is currently worth £7.3m, up 9.1% year-on-year [SymphonyIRI 52 w/e 25 December 2011]. “While it has done a good job of developing a steady market for pretzels, we felt it had more potential,” said Dave Wilson, head of marketing.