SAVORY SHOTS: SWEET SHOTS: SUPPLEMENT: Vermont Smoke & Cure Veggie Go’s NACS Preview SEE PAGE 12 SEE PAGE 16 SEE PAGE 17 October 2018 Volume 2 • Issue 5 SNACKING NEWS Puff Sales Popping as Consumers Discover Better-for-You Versions BY ROBIN MATHER New better-for-you puffs, many made with plant proteins or from vegetables, are showing up everywhere. Consumer re - SAVORY SEE PAGE 10 & 11 search company SPINS says sales of puffed snacks grew nearly 10 percent in n Dutch Company Adds 2 New Products 2017, far outpacing the snacks category as to North American Line a whole, which grew 1.4 percent in the n Whole Foods Lauds gimMe Snacks same period. Puffs account for seven to 10 percent of the overall snack category, SPINS says. As Whole Foods noted in its 2018 trends forecast late last year, new Plant-Based Snacks Capture extrusion and popping tech - Consumers’ Interest – and Dollars nologies make al - most anything BY ROBIN MATHER Show in New York, New York, in July. puff-able and If Mintel’s David Lockwood is right, That share is only likely to grow, as con - poppable. you’re going to see more plant-based sumers across all demographic sectors turn Exhibitors at snacks in the marketplace this year. And to plant-based snacks. the Sweets and SWEET SEE PAGE 13 & 14 next year, and the year after that. You can credit the adventurous palates Snacks Expo in Hungarian Chocolatier’s Prize-Winning n “One third of snack purchases are plant- of Millennials and members of Gen Z – May in Chicago, Products Now in U.S. based,” Lockwood told the audience at a the newest demographic, those of ages 11 Illinois, demonstrated exactly that, with session called “The State of the Specialty dozens of puffed vegetable- and nut-based n DAHlicious Organic Launches Single Continued on Page 9 Serve Lassi Food Industry” at the Summer Fancy Food snacks. Among them: HIPPEAS showed its organic chickpea puffs; Crunch-a- www.snackingnews.com Marketing to Multicultural Mame offered its organic edamame puffs in barbecue, cheddar and ranch; Peeled Customers Requires Fresh Thinking Snacks offers baked organic pea puffs; Cosmos Creations added its Welch’s BY ROBIN MATHER “When you’re talking about multicul - Multigrain Fruit Puffs; Shrewd Food If your retail presence serves members of tural consumers, you’re really referring to showed its sweet and savory puffs; and a diverse community, understanding their diverse customers – African American, Ready Nutrition showcased its pea-protein preferences in how you market to them Hispanic, Asian and LGBTQ segments,” puffs. can make a big difference in your sales fig - he says. “And when we talk about His - What’s driving consumers’ love for ures. So says Corey Richardson, Director panic customers, we’re talking about crunchy, crispy puffs? Some manufactur - and Cultural Anthropologist for fluent360 Spanish-speaking people from the western ers think it’s the Millennial love for com - in Chicago, Illinois, an agency specializing hemisphere. Latinx means an individual fort, combined with a desire to improve in connecting brands to multicultural com - munities. Continued on Page 9 Continued on Page 8 NACS Show Offers Education, gether in a general ses - sion on Monday from Tech and Speakers 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., and Henry Armour and Ideas BY ROBIN MATHER expo. 2 Go speak in the same The 2018 National Association of Conven - Bonin Bough, a much-lauded marketing time slot on Tuesday. ience Stores (NACS) Show and Confer - executive with experience at Mondelez In - Television host, writer ence runs from Sunday, October 7, to ternational, PepsiCo, Weber Shandwick and actor Mike Rowe Wednesday, October 10, at the Las Vegas and Ruder Finn Interactive, will speak speaks in a general session on Wednesday Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sunday at a general session from 3:45 to from 8 to 9 am. Rowe is perhaps best A full slate of educational sessions com - 5 p.m. Continued on Page 6 plements the new product exhibits and Joe Sheetz and Scott Stratten speak to - FROM THE EDITOR SNACKING NEWS WWW.SNACKINGNEWS.COM There’s a tremendous with frog’s mouth? I hadn’t heard that term Again and again, the issue of time or, PUBLISHER amount of information in until I learned about the standardized lex - more precisely, the lack of it, surfaced – Kimberly Oser this issue of Snacking icon that the American Cheese Society has no time to prepare meals, no time to eat News. From a story that developed which defines cheese faults breakfast if you want to get the kids out the SENIOR ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER examines the sudden in - (and yes, frog’s mouth is a fault) and fla - door on time, no time to shop, or share Jules Denton-Card terest in puffed snacks – vor profiles so that cheesemakers, cheese - meals. Millennials, it’s said, often prefer [email protected] including who’s making mongers and cheese devotees can all speak to eat alone, and I’m guessing this is be - them and the secrets behind why they the same language. cause they’re eating at their desks, or in EDITORIAL DIRECTOR think your customers love them so – to the I knew that everyone’s snacking much their cars, and have gotten used to that. I Lorrie Baumann profile of a whimsical candy store owner more than they used to, but I had no idea found it telling that an expert with the EDITOR in Pennsylvania who shares his tips for that as many as 90 percent of respondents Nielsen company says one of the big driv - Robin Mather success, I hope you’ll find something you to an NPD snacking survey would say that ers of snack purchases is single-serving find useful. they sometimes or often use snacks as size. ASSOCIATE EDITORS One of the best things about being a re - meal replacements. I’m old enough to be hardwired to be - Jeanie Catron porter is that you get to exercise your cu - I learned, too, that your minority cus - lieve in the importance of the family meal, Greg Gonzales riosity about many topics. Reporting for tomers, be they Hispanic, African Ameri - and this trend of solo eating saddens me JoEllen Lowry the stories for this issue was fun and en - can or Asian, don’t live inside a bubble. some. But I’ll get over that. I guess I’ll lightening for me. With every issue, I learn They see themselves living in dual cul - have to change my thinking. ART DIRECTOR something new. tures, not a single one, and a savvy retailer I hope you’ll find plenty to engage you Yasmine Brown n Have you ever encountered a cheese markets to them in some surprising ways. in this issue. GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jonathan Schieffer CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGERS Caitlyn McGrath Susan Stein DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS Tara Neal [email protected] CIRCULATION MANAGER Jamie Green [email protected] PUBLISHING OFFICE 1877 N. Kolb Road Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300 Fax 520.721.6300 SUBSCRIBER SERVICES Snacking News P.O. Box 30520 Tucson, AZ 85751 520.721.1300 OSER COMMUNICATIONS GROUP FOUNDER Lee M. Oser Periodicals postage paid at Tucson, AZ, and additional mailing office. Snacking News is published bi-monthly by Oser Communications Group, 1877 North Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715; 520.721.1300. Publisher as - sumes no responsibility for unsolicited material or prices quoted in newspaper. Contributors are responsible for proper release of proprietary classified information. ©2018 by Oser Communications Group. All rights re - served. Reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher, is expressly pro - hibited. Back issues, when available, cost $7 each within the past 12 months, $12 each prior to the past 12 months. Back orders must be paid in advance either by check or charged to American Express, Visa, or Master Card. Snacking News is distributed without charge in North America to qualified professionals in the retail and distribution channels of the chain drug, convenience, grocery, and specialty foods trade; paid subscriptions cost $65 annually to the U.S. and Canada. All foreign subscriptions cost $150 annually to cover air delivery. All payments must be made in U.S. funds and drawn on a U.S. bank. For subscriber services, including subscription information, call 520.721.1300. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Snacking News, 1877 North Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715. 4 SNACKING NEWS October 2018 SNACKING NEWS Pittsburgh-Based Candy Shop Celebrates Fun and Delight BY ROBIN MATHER this business coup. “Heard the news, the Pocono mountains in northeastern marshmallows that go into cereal,” he A floor inlaid with pennies in the ice cream called my supplier, and bought everything Pennsylvania, so it’s not surprising that the says. “We didn’t – I didn’t even know such parlor at Grandpa Joe’s Candy Shop’s they had in stock,” he says. boy grew into a man who tired of the a thing existed! But I made some calls and flagship store in the Strip District of Pitts - Today, Grandpa Joe’s has six stores and restaurant business, put away his culinary found a supplier, and now we sell 280 burgh, Pennsylvania, might be the best a distribution center in nearby Robinson, degree and decided to open his own candy pounds of those little marshmallows a metaphor for owner Christopher J. Beers’s Pennsylvania. With stores in Beaver and paradise. week.” success. Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania; Chillicothe, Even now, Beers’s easy-going public Retailers should never hesitate to work The floor was a wacky idea that came to Middletown, and Miamisburg, Ohio, persona cloaks a mind that never stops closely with suppliers.