March 08--With its first new product line in years, Mondelez International -- the global food manufacturer known for Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers -- is appealing to customers, and particularly women, who enjoy reduced-guilt snacking.
This week, Deerfield-based Mondelez unveiled a new product line called Good Thins, baked from potato, rice or chickpeas and processed in a variety of flavors. Perhaps more important to the brand's success is what Good Thins are lacking: artificial flavors, colors, cholesterol, partially hydrogenated oils and high-fructose corn syrup (though they do have sugar).
Increasingly, consumers are buying "free from"-type of food products they consider to be healthier and more sustainable. Traditional food manufacturers like Mondelez, Kraft Heinz and ConAgra Foods are trying to change with the times and win those customers over.
Good Thins are Mondelez's first new product line in the United States since BelVita breakfast biscuits in 2012, said spokeswoman Kimberly Fontes. The difference is BelVita had already been available in Europe before coming here, whereas Good Thins are a new brand built "from the ground up," she said.
Women between 35 and 45 years old, many of whom are married and have kids, are the targeted demographic for Good Thins, Fontes said.
Mondelez, a $30 billion company, came into existence when Kraft Foods split into two publicly traded companies in 2012. The spun-off North American grocery business, Kraft Foods Group, later merged with Heinz to become Kraft Heinz.
Back in 2004, when Mondelez was still known as Kraft Foods, the company launched its line of 100 Calorie Packs, some varieties of which are still being produced. But as Fontes noted, consumer demand has shifted away from diet food to products considered both healthy and better-tasting.
In the early going, Good Thins will be produced in the Mondelez bakery in Montreal and in two external facilities in the U.S. that are not part of the Mondelez network of facilities, said Fontes, who said she couldn't immediately say where the U.S. facilities are located.
The suggested retail price is $3.69 per box.
gtrotter@tribpub.com
