Dive Brief:
- Yooli Foods is introducing a cultured dairy product called Yooli Creme that's positioned as an alternative to yogurt, according to Food Bev Media. The U.S. dairy company is initially offering three flavors: honey lemon zest, strawberry, and vanilla.
- The primary ingredient in Yooli Creme snacks is what the company calls farmer’s cheese, which is a soft cheese with a slightly sweet flavor. The resulting product has a minimum of 16 grams of protein, is low fat and gluten free.
- Yooli Foods also has released a line of farmer's cheese bars that have a cheese, nut and fruit filling inside a chocolate shell.
Dive Insight:
The new cups, as well as Yooli's bars, are targeting growth pockets within the snack industry. Yogurt sales have declined in recent years, and even the once-mighty Greek yogurt category has lost steam of late. It appears consumers are looking for unique and adventurous flavors: Euromonitor noted sales have increased for Icelandic yogurt brands like Siggi's as well as Noosa, which features off-center flavors like raspberry habanero. Yogurt drinks, the research firm noted, saw sales grow 12% last year.
Yooli's bars tap into a growing snack/granola bar category that IRI recently listed as a top growth opportunity for its convergence of health and flavor attributes.
Still, Yooli's new snacks could struggle to stand out from competitors, which include mainstream players as well as fellow up-and-comers. Mars just purchased a minority stake in Kind, while yogurt maker Chobani recently went through a rebranding and has hinted at developing products in other categories. It's also possible shoppers will be put off or confused by the notion of "cream" cheese. In addition, the product needs to be refrigerated, which could limit its usefulness among some snackers.
Still, the high protein content — around 16 grams per cup for the Creme and 6 grams for the bar — along with a clean label focus, will likely help get Yooli's snacks noticed by consumers. The fact it is 99% lactose free could open it up to a broader market. It certainly has the potential to be a disrupter, much like Greek yogurt was just a couple of years ago.
Yooli will likely appeal to a variety of consumers, beyond the lactose intolerant. The company’s history of bringing family, handcrafted recipes to the U.S. from Eastern Europe will likely stand out to consumers who care about the business' background, as will the fact it is women-owned. Millennials may be drawn to this new alternative because the group is fond of trying new tastes and textures and the product is portable and addresses their desire to snack.