Focus On Crisps, Nuts and Bagged Snacks: 16 April

Publishing: 16 April 2022
Advertising deadline: 1 April 2022
Submissions deadline: 25 March 2022

Feature One: Crisps
By Niamh Leonard-Bedwell N.Leonard-Bedwell@thegrocer.co.uk 

Crisps may be the iconic junk food. Those deep fried or baked slices of potato have often been seen as a scourge by health campaigners, and HFSS rules due in October will finally bring matters to a head. But could crisps be better placed than many categories to adapt to the restrictions on advertising for high-salt goods? What innovation is already placed to escape marketing controls? How easy will reformulation prove? And how are retailers preparing for these changes?

Innovation: Kettle Foods and Walkers are only two leading brands that have launched non-HFSS snacks recently. How easy has it been to update products or create new ones? And how are shoppers likely to respond?

Benefits: Other categories affected by HFSS rules have sought to add additional health benefits during reformulation. So is anything similar happening in crisps, nuts or bagged snacks?

Nuts: Nuts has been one segment in this category that has seen a sales decline. So why are nuts struggling at a time where crisps and bagged snacks are growing?

Innovations: Profile of four new products or ranges that have not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.

Feature Two: Prices and inflation
By Emma Weinbren Emma.Weinbren@thegrocer.co.uk 

Supply chain crunches may be about to soften up bagged snacks. National crisps shortages last year were preceded by increasing prices for the category, with Kantar data more recently showing a 2.4% boost to prices in the year to 23 January. So how are crisps, nuts and bagged snacks going to cope with rising production costs? Will shoppers switch to cheaper fare? Or can the category justify price increases with more premium offerings?

Cyber problems: Bagged snacks have been affected by IT issues of late, with KP Snack distribution hurt by a ransomware attack and Walkers facing similar problems after an IT upgrade. How is this playing into wider cost issues?

Environmental impact: In February Walkers called time on its crisp packet recycling scheme, winding it up less than four years after it began. It argues that packet recycling is much more readily available than before. So what’s the state of crisps’ environmental impact?

Innovations: Profile of four new products or ranges that have not appeared in The Grocer before. We need launch date, rsp, and a hi-res picture of each.