Ten years in, and school-approved allergen-free brand Healthy Crunch is continuing to connect with moms, innovating across multiple product lines.

The brand’s success includes its popular kale chips, which will be reintroduced in April, as well as crispy squares rolled out for Valentine’s Day, and its recipe-tweaked 24-pack of granola bars, which is being demoed at Costco.

“Innovation is one of our core values at Healthy Crunch,” says company founder Julie Bednarski. “Because we are a smaller company, we are able to react faster [than big CPGs].”

She tells strategy with its manufacturing and design capabilities, Healthy Crunch is able to bring a new product to market in roughly two months. This is key, Bednarski explains, as according to retail partners, 40% of its business is seasonal and it needs to find a way to stand out on busy store shelves.

This year, for example, it will be introduce pumpkin-spiced chocolate chips, adding that the brand is planning two to three different offerings each season.

Bednarski is constantly looking at dietary and innovation trends internationally to inform new products. The brand’s latest innovation is Healthy Crunch’s chewier formulation, granola bars, which will be sold at Costco. With two demos per store in the upcoming weeks, the brand is looking to offer value to members. It’s completed other rotations in the past with the retailer, with which it has had a partnership since 2017.

At Costco locations, Healthy Crunch is also activating a brand ambassador campaign to have its “Crunchers” go into locations to share the benefits of our Granola Bars and where to find the product.

A lot of national retailers, Bednarski explains, are merging the better-for-you set with conventional. That’s how Healthy Crunch has persevered and gained traction with its vegan, plant-based, low-sugar and keto products as “everyday consumers want to eat better.” An example of this is the robust growth the brand has seen in its products’ sales at Shoppers Drug Mart locations. She adds that Healthy Crunch is trying to be in every category within the grocery store.

It’s all about taking traditional foods like baking chips and snack bars, and “tweaking the nutrition” to make it better for you, Bednarski says, adding that the company wants to be like Annie’s, whose flagship product was a first-to-market organic mac and cheese, but which now competes in other categories.

While Healthy Crunch does invest in end caps and traditional shopper programs, Bednarski says it puts its marketing dollars primarily against TikTok and Instagram to be more nimble.

One of the company’s big marketing plays, she adds, is social media, while also offering as much sampling as it can.

The company’s target, she says, is “gatekeeper moms,” who put their children’s health needs first.

“Mothers are looking for school-safe snacks,” she says, and that it deploys brand ambassadors to connect with the demo.

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