PepsiCo UK is stepping up its innovation programme with plans to bring a raft of new products to market next year.
Leading the way will be Quaker Seasons, a crispbread snack which is oven-baked so that it has a fat content of just 10%. Rolling out in three savoury flavours, such as Caribbean Chicken (rsp: 39p for a 28g bag), as well as multipacks and sharing packs, the new product will be supported by a £4.5m campaign.
Martin Glenn, PepsiCo UK president, said Seasons was very low in fat for a bagged snack product, but he added: “It will be launched on a taste platform not just a better-for-you platform. They taste fantastic.”
When PepsiCo brought its UK
businesses together at the beginning of the year, it said it would forge closer links between its healthy eating and snacks operations (The Grocer, January 10, p41). Glenn said Seasons had been made possible thanks to the group’s ability to leverage Walkers’ expertise when it came to developing, manufacturing and merchandising snack products.
He said there was a massive opportunity for such products in the impulse sector, which had been slower to cater for healthy eating.
At the same time, PepsiCo is preparing to unveil a product for kids branded Walkers Potato Heads. Glenn described the product as a kids’ version of Walkers’ Lites. The new product - which will be advertised by brand ambassador Gary Lineker - is lower in fat and salt than normal crisps.
In addition, PepsiCo plans to give its Tropicana juice brand a boost with the launch of new Tropicana Essentials, mixing “functionally advantaged juices” with fibre - which has already gone down well in the US.
Wrigley starts a new TV campaign this weekend to support the launch of its Juicy Fruit flavour, Strappleberry. Running on both digital and terrestrial channels until early December, the push features two executions - ‘Grin and Bear it’ and ‘Resistance Training’. In the former (pictured), two scientists set up a bear trap with the new Wrigley offering for bait. They film as passers-by fail to resist the tasty treat.
Julian Hunt