Healthy snacks growth outpaces overall food and beverage market

21-Jul-2016 - Last updated on 22-Jul-2016 at 14:38 GMT

Photo: iStock

“Free from” claims and private-label sales are driving growth in the healthy-ingredient snacks market, and granola and breakfast bars are rising stars in the stagnant breakfast category, says a new report by Packaged Facts.

Using data compiled from IRI’s InfoScan Reviews, the fall 2015 Simmons National Consumer Study, and Packaged Facts’ National Consumer Survey conducted earlier this year, the report found that the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of healthy snack sales outpaced the overall food and beverage market by 4.7%

The report defines healthy snacks to include these categories and types: Cereal/granola bars, snack nuts and seeds, dried fruit snacks, trail mix and other sweet/salty snacks, and meat snacks, which is a new category in the annual report this year.

Snacking on meat and nuts

“The last five years have seen steady growth for the healthy-ingredient snack market,” the report said. “Much stronger growth in the last two years was due to double-digit growth in the meat snack and trail mix categories in 2014, and stronger growth in snack bars in 2015.”

The report estimates that market growth will rise slightly above 5% in 2016, with sales for the category, as defined by Packaged Facts, growing to $20.3 billion. “The following years will see a slow but steady increase in sales growth, culminating in healthy-ingredient snack sales of $25.4 billion in 2020, a CAGR between 2016 and 2020 of 5.7%,” the report said.

Granola: The sunny side of breakfast product sales

Additionally, granola and breakfast bars are two of the only segments within the breakfast category seeing positive sales growth, according to the report. As a result, companies are expanding product offerings in the category, which has suffered in the recent past from a bad rap related to high sugar content.

KIND is an example. Although already in the breakfast space through its pouches of granola, KIND launched a new line of breakfast bars in April, which a spokesperson to the company said should reach national distribution by this summer.

“We all know how hectic mornings can be – in fact, a recent study found that 31 million Americans skip breakfast – but a nutritious breakfast helps make the morning brighter,” the spokesperson told FoodNavigator-USA. “[Hence], our KIND Breakfast bars are a great on-the-go snack for those super busy mornings.”