Kettle Chips is turning its attention to the healthier snacking market with a range of better-for-you products, as well as the introduction of updated packaging for the first time in its 16-year history.
Crispy Bakes, which will be launched early next year, marks the company’s bid for a bigger presence in healthy snacks.
Made from lentils, the snacks contain less than 10% fat and 100 calories and come in tomato with basil & green peppercorns, korma and mild cheese & sweet onion flavours.
They are said by Kettle Chips to be more flavoursome than rice cracker alternatives.
“We want to be pioneers in the better-for-you category as it is the most significant emerging category in snacks,” said Peter Wilson, marketing director at
Kettle Foods. “We have seen a proliferation of polystyrene-type products, but our focus is on taste. We have upped the stakes.”
Wilson said Crispy Bakes would be the start of a healthier snack campaign from Kettle Chips, which is also developing low-fat crisps.
“They will be genuinely innovative products,” he said. The company also intends to add new vegetable crisps to its range next year.
The packaging revamp, meanwhile, comes in the wake of the company getting fully back on its feet following a fire at its main factory in February that almost halved its production capabilities.
With production now back at full capacity, the £250,000 revamp of packaging, rolling out this month, includes an updated logo, a colour-coding flavour system and a switch to matt rather than gloss bags. Packs include the strapline ‘A Natural Obsession’.
Wilson said: “This sector is now a cluttered and highly competitive marketplace.
“The revamp will freshen up the brand and give it more differentiation.”
Stefan Chomka