Sweet picture: candy bucks snacks' health trend

Drug Store News, June 18, 1990

Sweet picture: Candy bucks snacks' health trend

Snacks in the '90s are getting lighter, healthier, lower in fat, lower in sodium content, and richer in natural ingredients such as oat bran.

Soft drinks are showing the strongest growth in the diet free-caffeine free and diet free with caffeine segments. Only candy seems to be bucking the fitness trend, with chocolates, especially new extra-thick and premium chocolates, doing exceptionally well despite their sugar count and calorie levels.

Today's candy consumer, one source told us, is looking for "Godiva quality at Hershey bar prices."

According to Marty Friedman, editor of New Product News, which tracks trends in dozens of new product categories, the more successful launches in snacks are for products that are light in cholesterol, low in sodium, and enriched with natural ingredients.

Consumers, says Friedman, are also switching from yellow cheddar popcorns to white cheddar popcorns mainly because white cheddar is not as messy and not as likely to stain hands or clothing.

Consumers are also buying more of the thicker potato chips and also more of the little-bit snacks that can be grabbed and eaten by the handful.

Candy

In candy, the trend is for more and more higher quality chocolate bars, bars that consumers can think of as rich and chocolatey, but which don't cost as much as the chocolates displayed in refrigerated cases.

M&M/Mars is currently expanding distribution on a variety of premium bars, including Sussande: very rich, very chocolatey bars, based on formulas made successful in Europe. The company also has two strong line extensions: Peanut Butter M&Ms and Dark Chocolate Milky Way.

"The manufacturers like M&M/Mars are looking at the success of Godiva and other European-style chocolates and asking themselves how they can bring that type of product down into a smaller size for the mass market. They're going after the consumer who wants a better chocolate but without having to spend $20 a pound for it," says Friedman.

The Sussande line includes bars and individually-wrapped pieces: the 3-ounce bar sells for 89 cents, the four-piece box, 99 cents.

Hershey has also upgraded its line of chocolate bars, and is currently testing a new bar called RSVP, which is described as "a premium chocolate bar at convenience prices." The milk chocolate bar with caramel cream center is reportedly doing well in its California test.

In the past year, Hershey has also launched a new premium chocolate bar called Symphony that is solid chocolate for "chocoholics." It has toffee chips and almond chips for the smoother, creamier taste that today's chocolate lovers seem to prefer.

Hershey is also going into a national rollout of its new Genuine Chocolate Flavored Drink in aseptic packs. The three-pack has a suggested retail price of $1.20-$1.30 and has reportedly done well in test markets.

The new Nestle white chocolate bar is also said to be well received as a premium item.

Self-serve chewies and hard candies are also showing growth in drug stores. Brach's has some new flavors for its Pick-A-Mix line that blend right in with today's trends toward nostalgia and novelty.

By popular demand, Brach's is reintroducing Root Beer Barrels and Watermelon Sparkles, and is ready to distribute their newest chewies, the licensed line of Looney Tune chewies featuring individually-wrapped popular Looney Tune characters such as Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig. Chains can also tie in with a new Bugs Bunny commemorative promotion which features bicycles as the prize in a national sweepstakes.

In gum, Wrigley's is still the favorite choice of many adults for a good, basic chewing gum; its Extra Sugarfree gum, introduced last year, is also doing well with calorie- and health-conscious grown-ups.

Kids, however, are another story. They like novelty items, and some of the newer and hottest items are coming out of Amurol.

Amurol now has several popular new flavors including Dreaded Heads, bubble gums formed and named after famous monsters: Godzilla Fruit Punch, King Kong Blue Raspberry and Werewolf Cherry.

Kids also seem to like the bubble gum Amurol created in honor of the Ghost Buster's ghoul, the Amurol Ghostbusters Slimer bubble gum. "Kids will eat anything if it's gimmicky," several sources said.

Snacks

In snacks, Procter & Gamble's Pringles and the brand's latest line extensions, Light Chips and Corn Crisps, are also doing well in drug stores. Buyers say their growth seems to be partly because shoppers see them as a "healthier" alternative to traditional potato chips.

White corn tortilla chips also seem to be coming on strong. Chi-Chi's, a popular chain of Mexican restaurants, now has its own retail line of Chi-Chi White Corn Tortilla chips in 11-ounce bags.

New York Deli has a new sour cream and onion potato chip flavor that's doing well. Bagel chips, introduced within the past two years, are growing in popularity, and rice cakes are continuing to sell, but their momentum may have peaked.

In crackers, new bite-size crackers such as Nabisco's Ritz Bits and Sunshine's Sport Snacks are crunching numbers; whole wheat is a popular new flavor, even emerging as a new Saltine flavor for Sunshine's Krispy line.