Meridian Nut Bars

Meridian is planning cashew and hazelnut bars

Meridian is targeting the sports nutrition market with new nut-based high-protein snack bars.

Launching into Holland & Barrett from 1 April in peanut butter (rsp: £1.19) and almond (rsp: £1.49), the 40g bars will be dual-sited in the sports nutrition and confectionery aisles. They will also go into Whole Foods Market and indies, while Meridian is developing four-bar multipacks for the mults.

It plans to launch cashew and hazelnut bars later this year.

Meridian, which withdrew its oat, nut & molasses bar two years ago after poor sales, said the bars had taken a year to develop and contained 7g to 8g of protein without using whey protein or palm oil.