Oser Communications Group

SNACKING NEWS SAVORY SEE PAGE 10 & 11 n Dutch Company Adds 2 New Products to North American Line n Whole Foods Lauds gimMe Snacks www.snackingnews.com October 2018 Volume 2 • Issue 5 BY ROBIN MATHER If Mintel's David Lockwood is right, you're going to see more plant-based snacks in the marketplace this year. And next year, and the year after that. "One third of snack purchases are plant- based," Lockwood told the audience at a session called "The State of the Specialty Food Industry" at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York, New York, in July. That share is only likely to grow, as con- sumers across all demographic sectors turn to plant-based snacks. You can credit the adventurous palates of Millennials and members of Gen Z – the newest demographic, those of ages 11 NACS Show Offers Education, Tech and Speakers BY ROBIN MATHER The 2018 National Association of Conven- ience Stores (NACS) Show and Confer- ence runs from Sunday, October 7, to Wednesday, October 10, at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. A full slate of educational sessions com- plements the new product exhibits and gether in a general ses- sion on Monday from 10:30 to 11:45 a.m., and Henry Armour and Ideas 2 Go speak in the same time slot on Tuesday. Television host, writer and actor Mike Rowe speaks in a general session on Wednesday from 8 to 9 am. Rowe is perhaps best Continued on Page 6 Marketing to Multicultural Customers Requires Fresh Thinking BY ROBIN MATHER If your retail presence serves members of a diverse community, understanding their preferences in how you market to them can make a big difference in your sales fig- ures. So says Corey Richardson, Director and Cultural Anthropologist for fluent360 in Chicago, Illinois, an agency specializing in connecting brands to multicultural com- munities. "When you're talking about multicul- tural consumers, you're really referring to diverse customers – African American, Hispanic, Asian and LGBTQ segments," he says. "And when we talk about His- panic customers, we're talking about Spanish-speaking people from the western hemisphere. Latinx means an individual Continued on Page 9 Continued on Page 8 Continued on Page 9 BY ROBIN MATHER New better-for-you puffs, many made with plant proteins or from vegetables, are showing up everywhere. Consumer re- search company SPINS says sales of puffed snacks grew nearly 10 percent in 2017, far outpacing the snacks category as a whole, which grew 1.4 percent in the 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 extrusion and popping tech- nologies make al- most anything puff-able and poppable. Exhibitors at the Sweets and Snacks Expo in May in Chicago, Illinois, demonstrated exactly that, with dozens of puffed vegetable- and nut-based snacks. Among them: HIPPEAS showed its organic chickpea puffs; Crunch-a- Mame offered its organic edamame puffs in barbecue, cheddar and ranch; Peeled Snacks offers baked organic pea puffs; Cosmos Creations added its Welch's Multigrain Fruit Puffs; Shrewd Food showed its sweet and savory puffs; and Ready Nutrition showcased its pea-protein puffs. What's driving consumers' love for crunchy, crispy puffs? Some manufactur- ers think it's the Millennial love for com- fort, combined with a desire to improve Puff Sales Popping as Consumers Discover Better-for-You Versions Plant-Based Snacks Capture Consumers' Interest – and Dollars SWEET SEE PAGE 13 & 14 n Hungarian Chocolatier's Prize-Winning Products Now in U.S. n DAHlicious Organic Launches Single Serve Lassi SWEET SHOTS: Veggie Go's SEE PAGE 16 SUPPLEMENT: NACS Preview SEE PAGE 17 SAVORY SHOTS: Vermont Smoke & Cure SEE PAGE 12 expo. Bonin Bough, a much-lauded marketing executive with experience at Mondelez In- ternational, PepsiCo, Weber Shandwick and Ruder Finn Interactive, will speak Sunday at a general session from 3:45 to 5 p.m. Joe Sheetz and Scott Stratten speak to-

• Cover