Cathedral City Mini Extra Mature Cheddars 6x20g

Source: Saputo Dairy UK

Extra Mature joines Cathedral City’s lineup of cheese snacks

Saputo Dairy UK has expanded its Cathedral City Mini Cheese Snacks range with a new Extra Mature variant.

The NPD joins the brand’s existing Mature and Mature Lighter snacking variants, and went on sale late last month in Morrisons (rsp: £1.85/six-pack).

The product aimed to capitalise on the dynamic growth of in-home snacking behaviour during the pandemic, and in particular the “recent consumer propensity for self-treating, which has seen almost one million new buyers enter the Extra Mature cheese market”, said Saputo, citing Kantar data [52 w/e 21 February].

“As in-home consumption has rocketed in the past year, so too has in-home snacking, with Kantar [36 w/e 29 November] reporting a significant +21% growth in snacking occasions,” said Cathedral City Snacking senior brand manager Anca Lazar.

“A perennial favourite and comforting fridge staple, cheese has been a popular go-to for consumers throughout this troubling time,” she added.

“Alongside this behavioural shift we’ve seen consumers seeking to treat themselves more during the pandemic and within everyday cheese this has manifested in a growth in popularity of more mature profiles. Now the second-most preferred maturity in Everyday Cheese, Extra Mature has seen value growth of +23% in the past year [IRI 52 w/e 27 February].

The Mini Extra Mature launch sought to capitalise on these trends, Lazar added, in a convenient ‘mini portion’ that was the perfect lunchbox filler.