KP Snacks acquires UK popcorn brand Butterkist

Butterkist’s manufacturing facility in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, England, and its 140 employees will be absorbed into KP Snacks upon completion of the deal.

KP Snacks said it will work closely with privately-owned Tangerine Confectionery to ensure a “seamless”​ transition for its customers, consumers, and colleagues.

“It will be very much business as usual during this handover period.”​

Mark Thorpe, CEO of KP Snacks, said KP Snacks decided to add Butterkist to its portfolio - which includes McCoy’s, Hula Hoops, POM-BEAR and KP Nuts - to offer consumers “a comprehensive UK snacking category proposition.”​

"KP Snacks seeks to offer consumers a comprehensive UK snacking category proposition."​​

Anthony Franceterre, CEO of Tangerine Confectionery,  said he is pleased with the sale as his firm is set to focus on the sugar confectionery category.

UK’s growing popcorn market ​

The UK popcorn category has experienced steady growth over the past five years with CAGR of 18% since 2012, according to Euromonitor.

However, the category growth reached its peak during the 2013-to-2014 period, and has slowed down since then.

The market researcher's data showed that, inn 2012, the retail value of popcorn was worth around $84.7m based on historic fixed 2017 exchange rates, and reached $195.4m by 2017. The total retail value of the popcorn category grew by 130.7% during the five-year period.

Butterkist and Metcalfe’s have remained the number one and number two brands in the UK popcorn category in terms of market share for the past two years, Euromonitor Passport showed.

Catapult Enterprises-owned Propercorn’s share ranking has upgraded from fifth to third from 2016 to 2017. 

KP Snacks is one of the biggest snack companies in the UK, and is a division of the German savory snack producer, Intersnack Group.