Doubling down with Duke’s, BIGS

Conagra Brands expanded its presence in the meat snacks and seeds segments earlier this year with the acquisition of Thanasi Foods, LLC, the Boulder, Colo.-based maker of Duke’s and BIGS. New products featured at the NACS Show include Duke’s Brisket Strips, featuring 100 percent grass-fed brisket, in four varieties: sea salt and pepper, chipotle barbecue, honey bourbon and chili lime. The brand also is showcasing Duke’s Cajun-Style Andouille Smoked Shorty Sausages, an extension of the popular Shorty line, with 7 grams of protein and 1 gram of sugar per serving.

“Andouille is a very well-known popular flavor in refrigerated sausages, and to translate that into a snacking format is very exciting for us,” said Erik Havlick, vice president of sales for Thanasi Foods and co-founder of Duke’s and BIGS. “We like to talk about the strategy around Duke’s as ‘charcuterie for the 99 percent.’ How do you take what is otherwise more of a highbrow experience and translate that to a snackable, approachable experience for consumers? We think the andouille sku is another step towards doing that.”

To draw more consumers to the meat snacks category, Conagra Brands is expanding availability of single-serve, three-pack formats of Slim Jim Premium Smoked Sticks and Duke’s Shorty Sausages, Havlick said.

“It’s not only an interesting ‘try me’ vehicle for new consumers to enter the brand and become familiar with the brand and what it has to offer, but it’s also an opportunity to blur some category boundaries,” Havlick said. “When you start to think about meat snacks and how is it that we start to grow that category and bring more consumers into that category, I think we have to start engaging them at different points within the store, different day parts, etc. That three-pack offering merchandises perfectly, as an example, in an energy bar or protein bar set.”