KANSAS CITY — While innovation is driving the snack industry in both flavors and formats, snack manufacturers continue to navigate the effects of inflation over the past year.

Those topics and many more were part of the State of the Snack Industry Webinar presented by Baking & Snack and SNAC International on Sept. 25. 

Baking & Snack Editor Charlotte Atchley posed questions based on the SNAC International 2024 State of the Industry report to a panel that included Justin Spannuth, vice president and chief operating officer for Unique Snacks, Reading, Pa., and chairman of SNAC International; Nico Roesler, North American pretzel and snack equipment sales manager, Reading Bakery Systems; and Rocco Fucetola, vice president of sales and marketing, BluePrint Automation. The webinar was sponsored by Reading Bakery Systems, BluePrint Automation and Unique Snacks.

Snack industry sales topped $68 billion for the 52 weeks ending Jan. 28, according to Circana. While dollar sales in many categories were up, unit sales were soft.

“Overall, it’s good to see the snack industry is performing very well, so now we just need to have to look at how can companies in each of these categories continue to push innovation while reducing operational costs that might be driving price per pound up in order to protect their healthy bottom line,” Roesler said.

Spannuth pointed out that companies that didn’t want to raise prices too quickly are still catching up with inflation.

“There's still a little bit of inflationary pressure, but this is for the most part, very much leveling out,” he said.

On the equipment side of the snack industry, Roesler and Fucetola said they are seeing snack makers who are still interested in increasing automation as they look to spend their money wisely, especially in light of continued labor challenges. 

The panel talked about a variety of snack categories, such as potato chips, pretzels, crackers and more. They also discussed how innovation is impacting the equipment side of the industry. For instance, Fucetola expects the rise in resealable cookie packaging to spread to other categories.

“You're able to take a flow wrap of Oreos, or your favorite cookie or whatever it is, and take two or three out and then reseal the package, and it's just as fresh the next time you get there: a day later, a week later,” he said. “I think that's going to migrate into the snack industry. I think it's going to force a little crossover and you're going to see that while we’re starting to produce more medium and big bags for various reasons, I think there’s going to be a push and innovation for a truly resealable type of bag. That might come to down pretzels and potato chips and things like that.”

Click here to access an on-demand presentation of webinar.