'Tip of the Iceberg Podcast' — South 40 Snacks’ Josh Schroeter on nut bars in produce

Learn from this sunflower seed and nut bar company founder about when (and why) a nut bar belongs in the produce department.

Why are produce buyers asking for them? How does this help produce sales at retail or the overall basket ring?

South 40 Snacks, based in Seattle, launched with large, shelled sunflower seeds in 2019. But it doesn’t make good business sense to have only one product; Founder and CEO Josh Schroeter is launching a line of super-premium nut bars made with few ingredients.

And he’s getting retailers to place them in the produce department. Listen to the full interview.

“We thought, well, produce is the right place to be, and why is that? Because, when you get out of the salty snack aisle in center store, if you have something unique, something highly differentiated, something better than the rest, something simple, pure, not a bunch of ingredients, and so forth, then naturally produce is the right place to be,” he said.

The bars are made in Greece and are traditional European-stye nut bars. They’re basically four ingredients: the primary nut, honey, sugar and glucose. There are six flavors, including almond, cashew, peanut, hazelnut, pistachio and mixed nut. In the fall, South 40 Snacks will launch three new flavors, possibly pecan, macadamia and a marcona almond.

The company started introducing the nut bars in January to produce buyers who were already buying South 40 Snacks sunflower seeds.

“And everyone is bringing them in. Produce makes complete sense,” Shroeter said.

Distribution has started in Safeway regions around the country, in Whole Foods Market in the Northwest, and they’re launching in most of Kroger’s banners nationwide by end of July.

Is this the right moment for introducing a super-premium product?

True, in these kinds of inflationary times, nut sales are way down, he said, as shoppers are not necessarily buying $10 or $13 bags of pistachios or macadamia nuts at the same volume that they were.

“So, the idea of a $2.49 or $2.99 nut snack is very appealing to them in terms of just some incremental revenue that that they can that they can get,” Shroeter said of retailers.

Listen: "Tip of the Iceberg Podcast" Season 4, Episode 4 — South 40 Snacks’ Josh Schroeter on nut bars in produce departments