The team that shook up Australia’s cracker market segment is back, this time with the snack category in its sights. After selling Gourmet Food Holdings and brands including OB Finest and Olina’s Bakehouse to Mondēlez International in early 2021, the seasoned FMCG operators have launched SnackHQ and its first brand, ReFil.
Former co-founder and CEO of Gourmet Food Holdings, Todd Wilson, is one of the founders this time around, taking a small operational step back from a CEO role to chair.
Wilson told Food & Drink Business the investors identified a gap in the ever-growing snacking category across the three channels of sports nutrition, health foods, and mainstream for snack bars that were innovative, nutritious, high quality, and tasted good with a palatable price point.
They acquired a confectionery company in Melbourne that Wilson said had “amazing” manufacturing capabilities and NPD team, enabling all products to be developed and manufactured in-house.
The first brand off the production line is ReFil, a range of 5 Star Health Star Rating bars containing nine grams of prebiotic fibre, six grams of protein, no artificial flavours or colours, less than one teaspoon of sugar per bar and zero sugar alcohols.
“We created SnackHQ because we saw the need for nutritious and genuinely great tasting lunchbox and snacking products. As we manufacture our own ranges, we can adapt quickly and bring new ideas to life faster, just as we did in the premium cracker categories with Gourmet Food.
“With a commitment to creating high-quality, nutritious products, we plan on reshaping the snacking category with healthy and delicious options that reflect our industry expertise and passion for innovation,” Wilson said.
SnackHQ head of Sales and Marketing, Julia Clark, joined the company after more than 10 years at Chobani Australia, where as GM Demand, she launched Chobani into the New Zealand market.
Clark said the ReFil bars were developed to fill the gap in the market for snacking products for upper primary school-aged kids and teens.
“It is an age range when kids have more discretion when it comes to taste but still need nourishing food for their mind and body. We are delighted with the market tasting feedback we have received so far, and are busy developing more flavours, including a caramel flavour that will be launched later in the year,” said Clark.
ReFil snack bars are now available from selected IGA supermarkets, independent retailers and online at Amazon.com.au. Single bars are RRP $2.75 each, multipacks are RRP $8.90. The first ReFil range includes single 30g snack bars in three flavours: Iced Chocolate, Dipped Strawberry and Dipped Churro. The Iced Chocolate and Dipped Strawberry bars are also available in multipacks of four bars.
