Quoting Kantar figures, Nash says savoury snacks are currently worth £1.014bn while crisps are at £99m and declining at a rate of 5.2%.
She said: “Savoury Snacks are on the up as sales of traditional fried potato crisps decline. We launched Ritz Crisp & Thin to cater to this increasing audience.”
And she argued that consumers looking for permissible snacks are driving a shift out of snacks considered unhealthy and into snacks that are baked and seen as more wholesome, with savoury snacks growing at 20% a year and popcorn up by 25.8%.
She said: “There is a real opportunity for brands like Ritz, which have a strong heritage in baking, to make a mark on the category through innovation.
“Ritz is the world’s number one savoury biscuit brand, and is a savoury biscuit staple in the UK, worth more than £13.1m.”
