Hippeas Producer To Launch Two New Snack Brands

Over the coming months, Green Park Brands, the producer of Hippeas, will launch Maverick Snacks and CO Chocolate, a pair of new brands aimed at giving the parent company a foothold in three new categories: crackers, cookies and confection.

Maverick and CO will bring Green Park’s portfolio to six total brands, joining Reel toilet paper, Hippeas, Ugly Water (a joint venture with the beverage brand’s founders) and Buddy Nutrition. According to Green Park CEO and founder Livio Bisterzo, both of the new brands meet the criteria of exploring large categories that can be disrupted with better-for-you offerings.

“We’re getting really good at understanding consumers and the need states of what we define as the consumer of the future,’” Bisterzo said. “We look at large categories and emerging need states of innovation, and then we’re very capable of creating beautiful brands with the right narrative.”

Maverick Snacks will debut in April in Whole Foods stores nationwide; the retailer has a six month exclusive on the line. CO will likely make its trade debut at Sweets and Snacks Expo 2020 in May. Both are currently funded by Green Park and its investors, but may look to start individually raising their own capital rounds later this year.

Mavericks will debut with 8-packs of single-serving bags of cookies (in Birthday Cake, Chocolate or Chocolate Chip flavors) and crackers (in Pizza, Cheese and Plain flavors) with an MSRP of $7.99. Each offering has a core better-for-you callout, emphasizing low-sugar for the cookies and whole grains for the crackers. The goal is to target two lunchbox staples, Goldfish and Chips Ahoy, with similar flavor profiles but better-for-you messaging that can appeal to both natural or mainstream shoppers.

The brand may be familiar to some. In early 2019, Green Park initially launched the line in the U.K., featuring five offerings: Poppin’ Corn, Breadkicks (bite-sized breadsticks), Smart Cookies, and Lil’ Brix (fruit snacks). After debuting as a direct-to-consumer product before moving into retailers, Maverick subsequently ceased operations abroad, with former U.K. Managing Director Martin Gormley moving on as well.

President and general manager Christian Quie, who joined the company in January 2019, said that the U.K. launch was a test of the concept for Mavericks. Although the product could have continued on, the Mavericks team saw a stronger future for the brand in the U.S. and didn’t want to divide its attention.

The U.K. test will help shape the U.S. rollout. Most notably, the brand has trimmed the offerings down to two categories, selected because both crackers and cookies often share a category manager, category reset schedule, and promotional plan, Quie said, making these an “efficient” first launch pair. Green Park also realized the difficulty of merchandising small single-serve packs, switching to multiserve packaging that also better suits the larger American pantry. Direct-to-consumer has also gone by the wayside due to the larger size of the U.S., but may return later.

The retail strategy will be similar to the one the company followed with Hippeas, with an initial launch partner in Whole Foods and a longer exclusive period then many brands to give the brand time to refine the concept and build brand equity, Quie said.

“As you think broader, we’re really targeting a focus on the natural and organic channel and identifying those tier one operators,” Quie said. “[Then] we want to create a mainstream brand that has the ability to play across channels, so it will eventually expand beyond the natural and organic channel.”While not yet officially on the market, CO is expected to be presented to the trade later this spring.Former KIND SVP of field sales Joanne Bolonda has been named as the brand’s president and general manager.

Each bag of CO will contain a mix of sugar-free, plant-based discs in white chocolate, dark chocolate or milk chocolate that have been panned, or coated, in one of ten flavors: Key Lime Pie, Almond Sea Salt, Pretzel, Cinnamon, Toasted Coconut, Pineapple Habanero, Strawberry Lemon Chia, Blood Orange and Quinoa Crunch. The disks will use a base of cashew butter and will be sweetened with chicory root fiber and inulin — which also contributes to a total of 14 grams of fiber per serving. Each 3 oz. bag will likely have an MSRP between $5.99 and $6.49.

Bisterzo said the concept is a play on the European concept of a “pick n’ mix,” in which consumers get a variety of candy per bag. For the launch, the brand will encourage consumers to use the hashtag #AllInTheSameBag and plans to emphasize how differing flavors can come together.

“We have a concept around all [flavors being] in the same bag,” Bisterzo said, revealing a surprisingly political message. “As a brand, we bring people together in a world while the administration wants to put up walls and divide us.”