Burton’s Biscuit Company is making its debut in the savoury biscuits market with a Cathedral City-branded range.
The supplier has signed a licensing agreement with Cathedral City owner Dairy Crest, with the first biscuits going into stores next month.
Cathedral City Baked Bites launch into Tesco on 14 October in three formats a multipack of five 22g packs (rsp: £1.69), a 35g snack pack (rsp: 59p) and a 125g sharing bag (rsp: £1.59). The oval snacks - which each contain 20% Cathedral City cheese - will roll out more widely in 2014.
Burton’s, which also produces Cadbury biscuits under licence, has big ambitions for Cathedral City biscuits. It is hoping to turn the product into a beacon brand for the savoury biscuits market, which is growing 8% year-on-year, well ahead of the 2% growth in the sweet biscuit category [IRI 52 w/e 31 January 2013].
Burton’s is targeting sales of £10m in the first year for the range, and has invested almost £1m in new plant at its factory in Llantarnam, South Wales, to produce the biscuits.
“We started looking for a way to enter the £500m savoury market 18 months ago,” said Burton’s chief marketing officer Stuart Wilson.
“We looked at a number of brands and Cathedral City came out head and shoulders above the rest.”
The licensing agreement takes Cathedral City outside the cheese category for the first time. “We know there is a huge opportunity in snacking,” said Dairy Crest cheese marketing head Laura Downey.
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