Snac World - Official State of the Industry 2021 - 10

STATE OF THE INDUSTRY
loaded indulgences such as fried kettle
chips are driving snack sales. Snack
makers are engaging consumers with
personalized solutions like new flavors
and convenience-pack sizes and
through digital and social media to
create unique experiences to attract,
retain and gain consumers. Likewise,
she encouraged companies to keep
engaging consumers to maintain
growth ahead.
" Mobility is going to be the trigger, "
she added.
Mr. Spannuth pointed out that many
trends evolved during the past year.
" If you aren't saying sustainability
in your sleep, you aren't looking for
innovation hard enough, " he noted.
" Packaging and ingredients are both
big areas of focus for brands and suppliers
right now. As the industry has
explored just about every crevice of the
better-for-you category, I believe the
next level, better-for-earth products will
be flooding the market soon. "
Additionally, several snack manufacturers
responded to the pandemic by
repositioning their product portfolios for
the economic rebound this year. That
ended up being a very prescient move.
" When COVID hit, we started to
analyze our product lines as well as
how we operate internally, " said Brian
Smenos, vice president of marketing,
Snak King, City of Industry, Calif. " We
discovered areas at our company
where we may have been inefficient
and did some internal housecleaning.
We also automated our plants at the
same time, and that led to culling of
the SKUs, and looking for areas to
standardize bag sizes and former sizes. "
Most
recently, many companies -
not only in the snack industry - have
realized that the reopening of the nation
isn't going to happen as quickly as
flicking on a light switch. Opportunity
abounds for new products, but the
industry also faces challenges.
" As we look at what 2022 is going
to be, consumers are going to give
us permission to move ahead with so
10
SNAC WORLD 2021
" The smarter
folks were
thinking ahead.
I'm pretty sure
we'll see a
ridiculous flurry
of new products
in the second
half of 2021. "
Rob Sarlls, Wyandot Snacks and
SNAC International chair
many unique products and projects, "
said Mark Singleton, vice president of
sales and marketing, Rudolph Foods,
Lima, Ohio. " From the reality of supply
chain and operations logistics, I'm
really wondering what the industry, the
trade, what everybody is going to be
able to deliver. There are lots of headwinds
that we've never particularly
faced before. It's going to be a super
interesting year. "
Labor remains extremely tight, and
the workforce gap seems wider than
ever while skyrocketing commodities
and oil prices are putting pressure on
margins. Some businesses, however,
are discovering those recent investments
in their operations are paying off.
" As the economy has come roaring
back and restaurants are reopening,
that whole supply chain is taxed as we
have rebounded, " Mr. Smenos said. " It's
an unprecedented economic situation. "
For other companies, adjusting operations
is a response to a constantly
changing market.
" In a year where significant inflation
and cost pressures are impacting our
product development, we all have to
mitigate and manage our innovation in
a broader context. In this cost-pressured
environment, innovation has to
Snac World - Official State of the Industry 2021

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