Paul hill hears from Grenade to find out what it is up to in the wholesale channel
How has Grenade helped wholesalers grow sales in the past 12 months?
Grenade has provided wholesalers with category guidance and leadership, based on an in-depth understanding of the trends driving the healthier snacking category.
We have partnered with wholesalers to provide them with best-in-class direction and insight. This has allowed them to share their knowledge with their retailers and drive demand for the category.
What trends and opportunities are emerging that customers can take advantage of?
Three-quarters of Grenade consumers purchase Carb Killa purely as a healthier treat and as an alternative to a standard chocolate bar. With high rates of sale and high margin, the POR opportunity is huge for wholesalers to capitalise
on this shift in behaviour.
What challenges has Grenade had to overcome in the past year?
The biggest challenge Grenade has faced has been Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown. The four weeks following the lockdown saw the market decline by 52%2, with millions of pounds being wiped off the value of the category.
However, due to the strength and loyalty to the brand, and our strong relationships with our wholesale customers, we have fared much better than our competitors, with our market share increasing by eight percentage points to 55% overall.
What is Grenade’s greatest achievement in the past year?
Firstly, we’ve seen our distribution increase across all channels, but especially within convenience, where we are now in 20% more stores than we were last year. We also have a larger product range on average – all without any impact on our overall rate of sale.
Grenade has been the bestselling protein bar brand in the UK for the past three years, but this year we’ve also seen our share increase.
Grenade has also continued its track record of fantastic product innovation.
Last year, our White Chocolate Salted Peanut Carb Killa flavour was the most successful NPD of 2019 in the UK, driving more actual value sales growth than any other protein or single chocolate bar.
This year, we’ve also had an incredible reaction to our new Chocolate Chip Salted Caramel flavour as well as entry into the energy drinks market with Grenade Energy.
Are you planning any activity wholesalers should be aware of?
On top of new variants of the energy drink on the way before the end of the year, we have just launched our limited-edition summer special, Strawberry Ice Cream flavour.
We will also be promoting in key periods in August and October this year, and again in January 2021. We will have wholesaler-specific activity aligned with these promotions to help communicate the activity.
What advice would you give wholesalers looking to grow sales in the category?
Wholesalers need to advise their retail customers to place all various types of snack products in one convenient, impulse-driven location. They should also educate retailers to place both Carb Killa shakes and Grenade Energy drinks in the chiller. This is because rate of sale quadruples when sold chilled – simply because no one wants to buy a warm soft drink.
