Second Nature Brands Looks To Build BFY Sweets And Snacks Platform

Second Nature Brands, parent company to Kar’s Nuts, Sanders Chocolates and Second Nature Snacks, is looking to ramp up its acquisition strategy over the next few years as it seeks to build a platform of better-for-you sweet and snack brands. The company made its first move toward that goal earlier this month with its acquisition of Brownie Brittle from Encore Consumer Capital.

“We certainly felt like we were starting to build a platform in sweet and salty snacking with these three brands,” said Jennifer Bauer, CMO of SNB. “I think in the course of trying to kind of create that identity for our company that [position] made sense in terms of where we were now versus where we wanted to go.”

The potential for Brownie Brittle to play in both sweets and snacks, as well as its proprietary format and focus on real ingredients, aligned with SNBs M&A approach perfectly, said Bauer. The brand also holds a licensing agreement with The Hershey Company to utilize its Health Bar and Reese’s candies as co-branded Brownie Brittle flavors. Bauer said this agreement, in addition to its strong brand identity and its significant distribution footprint, made the deal increasingly appealing.

“We think that’s a great concept – borrowing equity of some of these phenomenal brands that they’re partnering with and of bringing new users and new households into the Brownie Brittle brand,” said Bauer.

Brownie Brittle joins SNB’s lineup of chocolate covered caramels, nuts and trail mixes. As it looks toward continued expansion, it is seeking to acquire brands that play in the sweets and snacks space with an emphasis on real, clean ingredient labels. Bauer said that while the company is not focused on a single attribute or diet trends, it recognizes that consumer demand for low to no sugar sweets is increasing.

“We’re looking to go deep into the categories that we play in today,” said Bauer. “We’re looking at other trail mix, confections and nut-based snack brands, but we’re also looking at ways that we can broaden our portfolio into categories that maybe we don’t play in today, but that would fit really well into the criteria that we’re looking for.”

That strategy will also support SNBs distribution plans. The company believes it can capitalize on the various distribution strengths of its respective brands, like Sanders which has a strong club presence at Costco. SNB believes it can use these existing relationships to grow the footprint of its other portfolio brands.

In 2021, SNB rebranded its parent company from Kar’s Brand as it looked to expand in the permissible indulgence and salty snacks categories through M&A. In April, SNB changed hands via an acquisition by UK-based private equity firm CapVest Partners LLP, from another PE firm, Palladium Equity Partners.

According to Bauer, the company sees greater growth opportunities under a more uniform and inclusive identity. Up until SNB established its new corporate identity, she added, the company was essentially functioning as a group of separate entities that happened to operate complementary brands.

“Our sights are set on being a much larger [platform] than we are today, one [brand] at a time, of course,” said Bauer. “Brownie Brittle just happened to come along at the right moment where we said this brand seems to really fit into the sweet snack space. There’s other really attractive things about which it also fits into that better snack idea of permissible indulgence. They use real ingredients, it tends to be a lower calorie snack and the other thing that we love about it is it’s got great brand recognition.”