Dive Brief:
- Dollar sales for the snack and granola bar category rose 3.7% to $5.08 billion in the 52 weeks that ended Aug. 7, evidence that the category is becoming increasingly crowded and competitive, according to Baking Business' reporting of IRI data.
- Driving that category growth were sales increases of nutritional and intrinsic health value bars (5%), granola bars (2.5%), breakfast/cereal/snack bars (0.51%) and the emerging "all other" snack and granola bars (73%).
- Despite increasing competition, General Mills remains the largest granola bar maker, primarily due to the Nature Valley brand. The company is also investing in the Annie's and Larabar brands.
Dive Insight:
Snack bars in general have also been able to get at the core of what brands are trying to accomplish through products that are both convenient and healthy. In some cases, that has meant working toward both, while at others that has meant focusing on either one or the other to create a standout product in that category.
Snack bar brand Kind and its founding team battled over what the term "healthy" meant on a product's packaging. The company received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, saying its fat content was too high to be marked "healthy." The snack bar responded that the source ot the saturated fat was nuts, and got the FDA's demand rescinded.