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Snack bars 2015: top 10 best-selling granola, breakfast and nutrition bars

By Vince Bamford

- Last updated on GMT

Snack bars 2015: top 10 best-selling granola, breakfast & health bars

Related tags Granola Kellogg company

Here we present an overview of the retail sales performance of the largest brands in key sectors of the US snack bars market in 2015, featuring IRI data showing the top 10 brands in the largest sub-categories.

There’s gold in them there bars – with overall sales in the US snack/granola bar category soaring more than $300m in the past 12 months.

The performance has been driven by explosive growth in demand for products focused on health and nutrition, with other parts of the market static according to IRI sales data for the 52 weeks ending 27 December 2015 {see tables below).

Among the big success stories have been Pure Protein, Clif and Kind – now seeking to repeat its performance in the UK after launching there last year. Clif, despite already being the biggest snack bar brand in the US, grew an impressive 16.6% - or $80m -  in the period.

Standout performer in Nutritional bars 

In percentage terms, the standout performer in the Nutritional bars market has been the Quest brand, which has grown almost 450% on the back of distribution gains and strong sales in existing channels.

While relative newcomers such as Quest are making a big impact on the market, some long-established brands are enjoying growth by tapping current trends.

Sales of Nature Valley Protein bars, for example, grew almost 10% by value and volume – and the brand’s Sweet & Salty range bucked the flat sales in the granola bar market. The growth in Sweet & Salty wasn’t sufficient to offset the $30m slump in sales of the core Nature Valley granola bars, however.

Kashi: 'a source of weakness'

Kellogg’s Kashi granola bars lost sales in 2015, and speaking to the Consumer Analyst Group of New York (CAGNY) conference last month, Kellogg chairman and CEO John Bryant admitted the brand had been “a source of weakness for us for the last couple of years.​”

He said the company had spent 15 to 18 months renovating and re-engineering the Kashi product range, and expected the brand to return to growth in 2016.

Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats drove plenty of value growth in the breakfast bars category but much of this was eroded by a weak performance from Special K Pastry Crisps.

Nature Valley outperformed the market, with its Breakfast range growing almost 40% by value.

General Mills stablemate Larabar has been another good performer, and its growth is likely to be accelerated this year by the brand’s first TV advertizing, which broke in January.

NUTRITION / HEALTH BARS

Year on year performance. Source: IRI 52w/e 27 December 2015 (Supermarkets, drugstores, mass-market retailers, gas/c-stores, military commissaries and select club and dollar retail chains)Note: data can be re-ordered by clicking on column heading

GRANOLA BARS

Year on year performance. Source: IRI 52w/e 27 December 2015Note: data can be re-ordered by clicking on column heading

BREAKFAST BARS

Year on year performance. Source: IRI 52w/e 27 December 2015Note: data can be re-ordered by clicking on column heading

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1 comment

Ms.

Posted by Sara,

I really enjoy your raisin oatmeal granola bars, but recently I'm not able to find them at any of the area stores. Did you discontinue making them?

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