Did You Know Snack Foods are Big Business?

While the realignment underway in college football has garnered a lot of attention, the snack foods industry has been engaged in a feverish ballet of mergers and acquisitions for the past few years.

Fueled in part by a pandemic boost in comfort food sales, several industry stalwarts have been actively shopping for new brands to add to their portfolios.

In 2020, candymaker Mars bought Kind North America, with Hormel Foods following suit in 2021 with its acquisition of Planters snacking portfolio. The beehive of activity continued with Kraft Heinz selling off its natural cheese business in 2021 and chocolate maker Hershey’s buying Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels that same year.

The rapid pace of buying and selling continued into 2022 with Mondelez’s purchase of Clif Bar and Kellogg’s announcement of plans to engineer a three-way business split to focus on snacks.

And now it seems all eyes are on Hostess Brands, maker of that most perfect food, the Twinkie.

The snack food market in the United States accounted for more than $150 billion in 2022 and is forecast to grow to nearly $170 billion by 2027, according to Euromonitor International. The snack market includes fruit snacks, biscuits, snack bars, candy and savory snacks.