Snacks & Candy

Natural Foods Boost C-Store Snack Sales

This growing better-for-you opportunity can help build a better-for-you reputation

Not only are consumers accepting of natural, better-for-you snacks in convenience stores, they’re expecting them.

dried fruit and nuts

Sales of natural snack products have grown by $63 billion in the past 10 years. And in c-stores in particular, those numbers are up 14%, more than any cross-channel competitor, according to data from SPINS, a Chicago-based provider of retail consumer insights and consulting for the natural, organic and specialty products industries.

Although natural snacks command only 3% share of c-store dollar sales today, compare that 14% growth to conventional snacks, which increased sales by just 1% last year. Those core snacking products will continue to command high sales volume, sure, but natural and better-for-you products’ 3% share is just the tip of the iceberg—a signal of opportunity, not to mention huge incremental sales growth potential.

As c-store operators look for ways to take advantage of better-for-you and natural products’ untapped potential, the best growth opportunities may be healthy snack subcategories that are underdeveloped in c-stores but gaining momentum.

Dried fruit, for example, offers tremendous growth potential for c-stores.

This naturally healthy and delicious treat represents a $15.9 million product segment in c-stores for the year ending April 16, 2017.  Compare that to grocery and mass retailers’ $285.9 million dollar sales of dried-fruit snacks during that time frame. In other categories such as meat snacks, convenience-channel retail dollars are equal to grocery and mass retailers.  

Dried-fruit snacks offer a ton of growth potential in trendy flavors. Dried-fruit products including mango, apple, and mixed berries have a higher growth rate than the subcategory overall, according to SPINS. The top selling product, mango, grew by 46% vs. the prior year. According to Nielsen xAOC sales data for grocery and mass retailers, tropical dried-fruit snacks are up 10.5% vs. last year.

Merchandising dried-fruit snacks, as with any better-for-you or natural product, requires a bit of finesse and promotional strategy. Industry experts like Kimberly Kawa, senior nutrition researcher at SPINS, suggest placement of healthy snacks on endcap displays.  “[With] wellness bars, trail mixes, jerky/trail-mix combos, granola bars, RTD smoothies,” she says when asked about merchandising suggestions. “Products that focus on portability, grab-n-go aspects, with a healthier-choice vibe”.

Kawa also recommends adding signage that helps promote trendy, clean-label attributes, along with a range of other highly diverse natural, organic and healthy products. 

C-stores may traditionally be known for indulgent snacks, but consumer demand for all-natural, healthy snacks is changing the way retailers think about their snack assortments.  Stocking better-for-you snacks that sell well in grocery and mass retailers is a great way for c-stores to change consumer perceptions and pick up incremental snack sales.

This post is sponsored by Associated Distributors

Multimedia

Exclusive Content

Mergers & Acquisitions

New Convenience-Store Roundup for August 2023

Pennsylvania, Virginia had the most new openings by state, Sheetz by company

Company News

Inside Haffner’s New Store Design

Flagship store offers unique foodservice menus, such as Sal’s Pizza and Crack’d Express quick-service breakfast

Trending