[Report Description]
The South African snack bar market is projected to register a CAGR of 11.48% during the forecast period (2020-2025).
- The demand for sports and energy bars is increasing in the country, especially among health-conscious consumers. Protein and fiber are the two most popular ingredients that are generating demand among consumers. This trend continues to influence manufacturers of energy bars, pushing them to launch high protein and high fiber bars that can serve as a supplementary source of energy and a meal replacement option.
- FutureLife, a brand leader in the South African functional food market, extended its current SmartFood product range by introducing three energy and protein bars, namely, High Energy SmartBars, High Protein SmartBars, and High Protein Lite SmartBars, for South African consumers. The high energy protein and sports bars are available across channels in the country, which are all non-GMO, contain added vitamins, minerals, and the daily immune supplement, MODUCARE.
Key Market Trends
EVOLVING FITNESS TRENDS AND INDULGENT SNACK BARS
In the past years, an increasing number of consumers in South Africa started realizing the importance of a healthy life and preferred an active and healthy lifestyle, thus, boosting the number of gym memberships. The country has the highest number of health and fitness clubs in Middle East & Africa. Athletes have often been the target of protein and energy bars, with marketing materials that feature images of muscular men eating these bars after a strenuous workout. Energy bars containing several healthy ingredients satisfy consumer's taste profiles with nutrition, replace a meal, and provide health benefits, along with being a tastier alternative to the available snack bars in the market. The category continues to innovate and churn out new concepts, formats, ingredients, and flavors. Among them, the allergen-reduced and gluten-free energy bars are gaining popularity. There rise of coffee culture is inspiring the manufacturers of snack bars. Flavors, like coffee, mocha, espresso, and cappuccino, are all appearing more often in the snack bar market. These trends have provided product developers an opportunity to expand their toolkits of flavors, including formulas with more vegetables, meat, herbs, and global spices, as well as offering bold flavors, such as smoky and sour.
THE SUPERMARKETS SEGMENT IS HOLDING A SIGNIFICANT SHARE IN THE MARKET
Owing to huge retail spaces and catering to a wide variety of preferences, supermarkets/hypermarkets are dominant channels for the sales of snack bars. Additionally, these stores are focusing on making the products available at every corner of the country, with an aim to expand the businesses and gain competitive advantage. Factors, such as business expansion and rising number of hypermarkets and supermarkets, add to the sales of these retail formats and significantly contribute to the snack bar market. The market witnessed greater sales of snack bars from these mass merchandisers. The availability of a variety of brands has been a key factor for increasing consumer preferences.
Competitive Landscape
New product development is the most adopted strategy and follows the consumer trend, i.e., the target segment, which helps in the better positioning of the company. Athletes and fitness-freak consumers look forward to the content in the energy and protein bars, rather than different flavors in various categories. Companies with products in the snack bar market are benefiting and developing strategies to continue holding their positions by introducing new variants in the category. Consumers prefer innovations in the products, such as the addition of flavors and the inclusion of health-promoting ingredients.
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- The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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