Dan Morgan, president of Better For You (BFY) Brands, said the industry forecasts the plant-based category is going to surpass meat-based snacks by 2018.
BFY Brands is the parent company of Our Little Rebellion, which manufactures PopCorners and Bean Crisps, in addition to Protein Crisps. BFY also owns Ideal Snacks that co-manufactures products for other CPG snack companies.
“There’s a big future for plant-based protein snacks, and we’re going to be the cutting edge of it,” Morgan said.
Protein Crisps come with three varieties, including Wasabi Ginger with Honey, Hot Buffalo, and Sweet & Smoky Barbeque. Each bag contains 10 g of protein and 90 calories per serving.
Protein is not a fad
“It’s difficult to make snacks with a high level of protein [yet] maintain good taste,” Morgan told BakeryandSnacks at the recent Sweets & Snacks Expo held in Chicago.
“We don't think protein is a fad [and] have invested tons of money in multiple types of protein sources like tapioca, soy and cassava,” he said. “There have been numerous fads over the years that many snack companies jumped on.”
“Animal protein has been growing over the last 10 years: the meat snack category has been on fire. But it’s hard to get plant-based protein at a reasonable price and have it taste good.
“[However], we’ve able to do that and we believe this is a category that’s going to be there for a very long time,” Morgan said.
Expanding distribution
Our Little Rebellion has experienced good growth, even though it's been through some distribution disruptions after the five-ounce bag was changed to a seven-ounce bag.
“It looks like we’re really picking the distribution back up,” said Morgan. “In the specialty world, changing UPCs has been a lot more difficult than we thought, but we’re starting to see the fruits of our labor paying off.”
Based in New York, BFY Brands is expanding the brand’s footprint from the East Coast to the west.
“We opened our new R&D center in Liberty, New York, about six months ago. It will be fully up and running this month,” he said.
Morgan believes that a “double-digit growth is within grasp” for Our Little Rebellion by the end of 2017.
“I think we should be able to double our business in a few years,” he said.