Top 10 US salty snack brands in 2017 so far: Sales soar for Frito-Lay’s Ruffles brand

12-Jul-2017 - Last updated on 22-Jul-2024 at 09:43 GMT

PepsiCo's Frito-Lays is the biggest contributor to the total US food and beverage retail of all the $5bn-plus manufacturers, reflected in the Top 10 US salty snack brands in 2017 so far. Pic: PepsiCo/©iStock/lepas2004

IRI data reveals the 10 biggest brands in eight key US salty snacks categories in the first half of 2017.

BakeryandSnacks reviews the performance of the US salty snacks market this year, breaking down IRI data to reveal the biggest selling brands in each of the key salty snacks subsectors.

Overall dollar sales of the US salty snacks market rose by 3.4% year-on-year to over $22,6bn, according to IRI data for the 52 weeks ending June 11, 2017.

Combined unit sales for each of the sub-sectors was up 1.89%, almost reaching 10 billion items, while the average price per unit was $2.30, rising 0.03% from a year ago.

Popcorn saw the biggest growth in the past year, ratcheting up a massive 9.68%, but only came in as number five in sales when compared with the other salty snack sub-sectors (excluding nuts).

The star performer in dollar sales was the potato chip segment with almost $7,36bn.

Top selling salty snacks

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Sub-category	Sales	Sales chg
1	Potato chips	$7.35bn	1.46%
2	Tortilla/Tostada chips	$5.06bn	2.36%
3	Other salted snacks (excluding nuts)	$4.05bn	4.63%
4	Cheese snacks	$2.14bn	8.25%
5	Ready-To-Eat (RTE) popcorn	$1.28bn	9.68%
6	Pretzels	$1.19bn	0.35%
7	Corn snacks	$1.15bn	3.4%
8	Pork rinds	$423m	6.12%

The growth of these two sub-categories was reflected in the performance and sales of Frito-Lay (the number one brand in both categories).

According to owner PepsiCo’s chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi during the company’s earnings call earlier this week, was the biggest contributor to the total US food and beverage retail of all the $5bn-plus manufacturers with sales of over $4.4bn.

Sales of the Lay’s-owned Smartfood brand rose by almost 25%, while Lay’s Potato Chips was the top selling brand in the US with sales of $2.18bn.

Top 10 brand performers: Potato chips

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	Lays	Frito-Lay	$2.18bn	0.14%	59.85%
2	Ruffles	Frito-Lay	$870m	15.00%
3	Pringles	Kellogg	$713m	-0.51%	10.91%
4	Wavy Lay’s	Frito-Lay	$518m	6.70%
5	Private Label	Private Label	$516m	6.93%	7.02%
6	Lays Kettle Cooked	Frito-Lay	$356m	6.2%
7	Cape Cod	Snyder’s-Lance	$265m	8.98%
8	UTZ	UTZ Quality Foods	$228m	-0.04%	3.76%
9	Kettle	Snyder’s-Lance	$202m	6.08%
10	Herrs	Herr Foods	$101m	-4.99%

Top 10 brand performers: Tortilla/Tostada chips

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	Doritos	Frito-Lay	$2.09bn	3.00%	72.70%
2	Tostitos	Frito-Lay	$635m	-1.65%
3	Tostitos Scoops	Frito-Lay	$470m	0.44%
4	Private Label	Private Label	$282m	7.92%	5.58%
5	Santitas	Frito-Lay	$264m	3.00%
6	Barcel Takis Fuego	Barcel USA	$260m	34.44%	5.71%
7	On The Border	Truco Enterprises	$183m	13.00%	3.66%
8	Mission	Mission Foods	$73m	-21.94%	1.60%
9	Dortitos Sabritas Dinamita	Frito-Lay	$70m	18.04%
10	Doritos Jacked	Frito-Lay	$38m	-30.14%

Top 10 brand performers: Other salted snacks (no nuts)

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	All Frito-Lay products	Frito-Lay	$1.06bn	2.12	62.04%
2	Funyuns	Frito-Lay	$362m	3.03%
3	General Mills Chex Mix	General Mills	$278m	-9.57%	11.16%
4	Chesters	Frito-Lay	$264m	12.63%
5	Sunchips	Frito-Lay	$211m	-8.97%
6	Munchies	Frito-Lay	$157m	-4.89%
7	Cheetos Doritos	Frito-Lay	$153m	11.7%
8	Frito-Lay	Frito-Lay	$119m	128.02%
9	Gardettos	General Mills	$109m	3,41%
10	Private Label	Private Label	$96m	6.85%	2.37%

Top 10 brand performers: Cheese snacks

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	Cheetos	Frito-Lay	$1.62bn	8.69%	86.97%
2	Chesters	Frito-Lay	$120m	11.47%
3	UTZ	UTZ Quality Foods	$55m	15.99%	2.91%
4	Private Label	Private Label	$54m	15.04%	2.54%
5	Cheetos Simply	Frito-Lay	$40m	39.08%
6	Baked Cheetos	Frito-Lay	$30m	2.56%
7	Cheetos Mix Ups	Frito-Lay	$25m	-24.39%
8	Herrs	Herr Foods	$22m	4.03%	1.11%
9	Wise Cheez Doodles	Wise Foods	$19m	-7.42%	0.99%
10	Cheetos Paws	Frito-Lay	$14m

Top 10 brand performers: RTE popcorn

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	Smartfood	Frito-Lay	$358m	25.11%	32.91%
2	SkinnyPop	Amplify Snacks	$225m	11.80%	17.59%
3	Angie's Boom Chicka	Angie's Artisan Treats	$77m	28.49%	6.41%
4	Private Label	Private Label	$68m	21.42%	5.38%
5	Smartfood Delight	Frito-Lay	$62m	23.51%
6	Popcorn Indiana	Dale and Thomas	$49m	-6.25%
7	Cracker Jack	Frito-Lay	$38m	-3.75%
8	Crunch n Munch	ConAgra Foods	$27m	-4.80%
9	Chesters	Frito-Lay	$26m	-15.87%
10	Wise	Wise Foods	$20m	0.67%

IRI data showed relatively flat sales (0.35%) in the pretzel category over the past 52 weeks at $1.2bn.

Snyder’s-Lance, which still dominates 38% of the sector, saw a small rise in sales (3.1%) to $454m, while Frito-Lay saw a 5% decline in sales to $167m.

Last year, while still in the position of CEO of Snyder’s-Lance, Carl E Lee Jnr said snacking was growing, but so too was the number of options. Lee left the company declining sales earlier this year.

Last month, the board permanently appointed interim CEO Brian Driscoll as they have been impressed by the significant progress he’s made since taking over.

Top 10 brand performers: Pretzels

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	Snyder’s of Hanover	Snyder’s-Lance	$420m	4.42%	38.00%
2	Private Label	Private Label	$204m	-1.98%	17.11%
3	Rold Gold	Frito-Lay	$166m	-4.91%	13.99%
4	Combos	Mars	$123m	-3.81%	10.36%
5	UTZ	UTZ Quality Foods	$82m	10.25%	7.63%
6	Snyder’s of Hanover 100 calorie pack	Snyder’s-Lance	$21m	9.33%
7	Herrs	Herr Foods	$18m	-1.88%
8	Glutino	Boulder Brands	$14m	0.88%
9	Bachman	The Bachman Co	$13m	-7.45%
10	HK Anderson	ConAgra Foods	$12m	4.67%

Top 10 brand performers: Corn snacks (no tortilla chips)

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	Fritos	Frito-Lay	$511m	5.89%	77.46%
2	Fritos Scoops	Frito-Lay	$225m	0.10%
3	General Mills Bugles	General Mills	$142m	4.62%	12.35%
4	Fritos Flavor Twists	Frito-Lay	$131m	2.28%
5	Sabritas	Frito-Lay	$22.1m	53.47%
6	PopCorners	Medora Snacks	$22m	-29.15%	2.37%
7	Private Label	Private Label	$19m	12.21%	1.66%
8	Toms Bugles	Snyder’s-Lance	$10m	-2.51%	1.46%
9	Barcel Churritos	Barcel USA	$9m	11.47%
10	Wise Cheez Doodles	Wise	$8m	-6.50%

Top 10 brand performers: Pork rinds

Source: IRI 52w/e June 11 2017. IRI is a Chicago-based market research firm (@iriworldwide)

Rank	Brand	Owner	Sales	Sales chg	Total company mkt share
1	Baken-Ets	Frito-Lay	$125m	-1.28%	29.58%
2	Macs Snacks	Macs Snacks	$54m	34.10%	12.93%
3	Golden Flake	Golden Flake Snack Foods	$43m	5.98%	10.31%
4	Toms	Snyder’s-Lance	$23m	12.00%	5.96%
5	Turkey Creek Snacks	Turkey Creek Pork Skins	$190m	6.54%	4.66%
6	Private Label	Private Label	$15m	12.59%
7	UTZ	UTZ Quality Foods	$14m	14.96%
8	Carolina Country Snacks	Carolina Country Snacks	$9m	17.62%
9	Lees	Lees Pig Skin Co.	$7m	9.45%
10	Wallaces	Wallaces Old Fashioned	$5m	1.38%

The above graphs demonstrate the dominance of Frito-Lay on the US salty snacks market, which Nooyi accredited to some important characteristics that make the company’s brands appealing to consumers.

She said Frito-Lay products are often purchased on impulse and are highly complementary to other food and beverage purchases.