Barú takes snacking chocolate brand to mainstream retail
The Belgium confectionery firm, founded around 10 years ago, recently presented snacking chocolate Nutty Thins at the ISM trade fair in Cologne, adding to its core range of chocolate-covered marshmallows.
‘Wider segment of the market’
"For us, it is an opportunity to be present in a wider segment of the market,” Maarten Krikken, co-owner of Barú, told ConfectioneryNews.
"We're traditionally more into fine foods and departments stores….We feel we've got an opportunity to speak to more retailers like we're doing with Carrefour in Belgium where we are on test in 15 stores."
Nutty Thins come in 50 g and 120 g packs in four flavors: Granola & blueberry with milk chocolate, almond & sea salt with dark chocolate, almond & chili with dark chocolate, and cashew & caramel with dark chocolate. Each product contains 35% nuts and inclusions.
"Because of the ingredients, it will be more expensive than the mainstream brands, but we think it's still value for money,” said Krikken.
"It will be premium supermarkets - it will never be the price-fighting side of the market,” he said.
"We've been growing year-on-year in sales and this takes us the next step."
Growth category
Hershey highlighted Snacking chocolate as a growth category when it acquired chocolate business barkTHINS in 2016.
Krikken said snacking chocolate’s popularity was picking up in Europe. "We've had a few contacts at the show who see it is growing,” he said.
Barú products are produced in Belgium or Holland by contract manufacturers.
The company’s main markets are Belgium, UK, Germany Scandinavia, France, Japan, US & Canada.
