Let's go barnanas! 'From the start we've focused on driving same store sales, not just picking up new distribution'
We begin with organic fruit snacks success story Barnana, which has just closed a new round of funding from Boulder Food Group.
Barnana, which unveiled two new products at the show - Apple Cinnamon Barnana and Coffee Barnana, plus new single serve snack packs – grew 350%+ in 2014 vs 2013, and has listings in more than 3,000 locations from Whole Foods, Safeway and Sprouts to Wegmans; new customers in Japan and Canada, and a growing online presence via Amazon, Abe’s market and other retailers.
But it has also been strategic about building the business, chief marketing officer Nik Ingersoll told FoodNavigator-USA. “From the beginning we’ve focused on velocity, driving same store sales, not just picking up new distribution. It’s all about cases per week per SKU, and drilling down to find out exactly what’s working what isn’t, and learning from that.
“We could have gone out with a shotgun approach to 20,000 stores, but we don’t want to put our product in stores where it won’t sell or we can’t support it.”
While Barnana performs well in multiple locations in the store, the best location is in the produce section, next to fresh bananas, said Ingersoll.
“People who love fresh bananas will love Barnana, because it’s got all the nutrition, all the potassium and fiber, but it won’t get squished in your bag.”
Ingersoll will be speaking at our snacking trends forum on March 18. Click HERE for details.