SN!BS snack vegetables are off to a flying start in India
Rijk Zwaan presented successful concept SN!BS at Fresh Produce India
Healthy snack vegetables are gaining a foothold in India, where vegetable breeding company Rijk Zwaan and SPAR India joined forces to launch the SN!BS concept together. At Fresh Produce India on 22 April 2021, they provided insights into their successful approach.
Stimulating impulse buys
Jan Doldersum, Manager Chain and Retail at Rijk Zwaan, stated: “The snacking trend is one of the key growth drivers in retail with a significant potential to expand the healthy snack category worldwide. That’s why Rijk Zwaan introduced SN!BS. With this concept, we firstly offer a ready-to-use marketing concept for our worldwide partners. Secondly, we inspire various options in healthy snacking, like snack tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers, but also snack lettuce, carrots, celery, cauliflower and radish. We’re very proud and honoured that our retail partner SPAR has launched SN!BS in India, and other retailers have also shown an interest in SN!BS healthy snacking.”
Venkatareddy TG, Business Head of Fruit and Vegetables of SPAR India, explained why. “The SN!BS brand enables us to offer our customers something different: surprising, attractive, fresh and healthy vegetable snacks. Additionally, these snack vegetables have a longer shelf life which helps to reduce store losses,” he said. SPAR has created various mixes of snack tomatoes, snack peppers and snack cucumbers in red, yellow, orange and green colour combinations. “Consumer feedback has been very positive. The colour contrast is very attractive and stimulates impulse buys. And the specially designed SN!BS packaging certainly helps too,” he continued.
Good teamwork
Venkatareddy worked closely with Ajit Bisoi, Chain Manager at Rijk Zwaan India, on the brand launch and follow up, and was impressed by the good teamwork with the vegetable breeding company. “Ajit really helped with the SN!BS concept, such as the design, nutritional values and the positioning of the products within SPAR. He also supported our in-store promotions to attract customers.”
Scaling up the project
Venkatareddy expressed his confidence that snack vegetables will be a success in India. “This is a unique concept that is aligned with the trends of snacking and healthy eating. We already organised in-store promotions and we’re scaling up the project right now. Rijk Zwaan India also helps us with sourcing and found two suitable growers for us. This successful partnership with Rijk Zwaan can be a step towards a healthier India,” he concluded.