Research: the Business Potential of New On-the-go Snacks

 
New ventures that launch an on-the-go snack or beverage with a “free-from” positioning have the best chance of success, a new research project by New Nutrition Business (NNB) shows. 

The analysis of 151 businesses founded between 2002 and 2013 in the UK, USA and Australia explores what makes a healthy food start-up fail or prevail.

NNB’s main finding is that snack and beverage start-ups are the most resilient in the healthier foods market.  “Beverages and snacks are products that are easier to adapt to constant changes in demand and preferences,” says Joana Maricato, senior market analyst at New Nutrition Business.

Snacks are an entrepreneur’s best bet with a 64% success rate, and if they add a “free-from” message, the success rate rises to 88%. These results reflect the presence of two consumer trends –  “snackification” and “free-from” – which consistently feature in NNB’s annual10 Key Trends reports.

Although beverages come in at a modest second with 56% of the ventures still on the market, they are the category most successful at breaking into the mass-market.

Dairy is a high-risk category, and the only group where failure exceeds success, with 57% of startups no longer present on the market.

Food and beverage startups with a focus on health have a reputation of having low success rate. The main purpose of the project was to verify such assumptions against good data, and provide a tool for developing data-driven business strategies.