Go Lower to take Altú to new heights
The new owner of the Altú cereal bar range will re-launch it early next year in a bid to broaden its appeal.
Low carb snack bar maker Go Lower, which snapped up Altú from Provexis last week for £75,000, said the range needed “reformulating, repositioning and repackaging”.Go Lower co-founder Hannah Sutter said: “Altú is a great product which rapidly gained listings in leading retailers including Waitrose, Sainsbury, WH Smith and Boots. But we need to give people a reason to choose it rather than an Eat Natural bar for example.”
The Altú name would stay, she said, but the recipe would be tweaked. “The taste is actually very good, fruity and distinctive. But I'm going to look again at the nutritional profile, the packaging and the positioning so that we can make it appeal to a wider audience without alienating loyal customers.”
Launched in 2003 by a group of former GlaxoSmithKline executives, Altú gained wide distribution in record time, but had struggled to build on its early momentum in recent months, admitted Provexis commercial director Stephen Moon.
Options for the loss-making brand, which turned over £298,000 in the year to March 31, 2005, included a sale, or repositioning it as a functional product by adding an active ingredient, he said.
Ultimately, the decision was taken to sell it and pump the proceeds into Provexis' core functional foods and ingredients business, said Provexis chief executive Dr Stephen Franklin. “Provexis will now be able to focus its resources and management time on its core business: the development of novel, patented, food bioactives with scientifically proven health benefits. These will be commercialised via a combination of licensing and own-brand functional foods.”
