December ‘19 sees Prime Bar make its long anticipated debut into the mainstream retail snacking arena with 3x 100% British bred/grass-fed savoury protein snacks Smokey & BBQ, Fruity & Flavoursome and Sweet & Spicy debuting within Marks & Spencer, Ocado, Selfridges & a nationwide network of independent food retail wholesalers.
The inescapable truth is that today protein is less of a trend or ‘idle curiosity’ and more of a given!
As with any dynamic food movement, making the migration from ‘intriguing niche’ to ‘pillar of the food fraternity’ can be an anxious step into the darkness. And yet, seeing the success that brands like Made for Drink and Ember have enjoyed taking ‘meat based’ snacks into the ‘unashamedly Friday night’ space, convinced Freddie & Luke that now was the moment for Prime Bar to explore the active living/health conscious snacking space. In short Prime Bar plays to meat’s unrivalled ‘natural protein’ prowess whilst providing a ‘minimally processed’ beef-based alternative to the snowballing avalanche of overtly processed/sugary sweet treats that currently clog up the protein snack space with their ‘sickly sweet nature, empty calories and ‘artificial nasties.’
Prime Bar co-founder, Freddie Gore Browne explains, ‘Prime Bar came about as a result of two best friends and frustrated endurance sports enthusiasts feeling despondent every time we peered deep into the darkest recesses of our ruck sacks only to be greeted by the grim reality of unpalatable sports gels & sugary sweet treats.’
The flourishing of Prime Bar in ‘outdoorsy’ outlets like Sigma, Wiggle & Chain Reaction Cycles underpinned the brand’s undoubted potential , however during the ‘early days,’ winning over the hearts of the major food retailers appeared significantly harder. Fortunately in the Summer of 2019 the ‘Future Brands’ team at Sainsbury’s took Prime Bar under their wing and the resulting 60+ store trial provided the perfect platform for securing invaluable end consumer feedback.
‘We’re indebted to our Sainsbury’s friends,’ concludes Freddie, ‘because exposure to well-informed supermarket consumers quickly confirmed that we only needed to make a couple of ‘easy win’ tweaks (packaging & recipe) to kick-start a major momentum shift in our fortunes.’
Jog forward a few months and Prime Bar is about to join Marks & Spencer, Selfridges and Ocado with three mouth-watering recipes (Sweet & Spicy, Smoky BBQ and Fruity & Flavoursome) and some ‘instantly gettable’ packaging.
‘Perhaps in the past,’ concludes Freddie, ‘we were too humble about our unflappable commitment to 100% British bred/grass fed beef that’s revered the world over. We’ve admired from afar the success of such dynamic yet polarising food movements as vegan & vegetarian, but also recognise that for every commendable food vision there is an equally compelling flip side discussion. From our perspective we believe passionately that we’re lending our voice to the oldest food trend on the planet (paleo), whose common sense diet focuses on simply consuming just the right balance of prime quality meat, vegetables and fruit.’
From a snacking viewpoint it’s also worth noting that for all the upbeat headlines plantbased has enjoyed, next to popcorn, it’s actually meat snacks that are rapidly establishing themselves as the second fastest growing snack category within the UK.’
Source: Prime Bar
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