Kellogg continues to expand its snack range

Kellogg is continuing its assault on the snacks category with the launch of several new products into the market and a project to transform retail merchandising for snacks.

The company is launching a lemon flavour variant of its Special K Mini Breaks bars, and a mint chocolate variant of its Special K Bliss cereal bar range. “Special K Mini Breaks has been established as one of our fastest-growing SKUs [stock keeping units],” said Jean-Yves Heude, Kellogg general manager for snacks and convenience.

Since it announced plans to boost its share of the snacks aisle from 15% to 50% in October 2007, the company has already grown its value share of cereals from 15% to 20%, according to Heude.

He also revealed that the company was in talks with retailers to add another cereal snacks bay to existing space because of the growth of the category. Kellogg had invested a substantial amount in a trial to push cereal bar products at gondola ends in supermarkets.

Heude also said the company wanted to see the creation of a combined cereal and fruit snacks category within the confines of the cereal snacks aisle in stores. He argued that there was too much confusion between the cereal snacks aisle and the biscuits aisle.

“70% of people buying fruit snacks also buy cereal snacks,” said Heude. “And 95% of cereal snack product sales are coming from people buying from [the cereal snacks aisle] - only 5% come from the biscuit aisle. We’re starting to talk to retailers about this. The retailers all agree we need to do something.”

Meanwhile, Kellogg announced a re-run of its Wake Up to Breakfast promotion, fronted by Olympic champion Kelly Holmes. The campaign will run for two months, with on-pack support. An online link on Kellogg’s website will enable consumers to search for community sports and activity clubs in their area.