Burts Potato Chips has announced bumper sales figures and revealed that it will now be known as Burts Snacks. The change in name follows its acquisition of popcorn maker Savoury & Sweet in 2017 and aims to reflect its growing range of brands.
The premium snacks firm now manufactures a range of crisps, popcorn, compression popped and flash fried products including Burts Potato Chips, Guinness Crisps, Jim Beam Crisps, Levi Roots Crisps, Lentil Waves, and the Popcorn & Me brands.
Burts Snacks has just completed an investment of over £7m across its Leicester and Plymouth sites which included the installation of a “state-of-the-art frying hall”. The company revealed that further capacity will be added to its flash frying, popcorn and compression popping technologies in the second half of this year, with specific focus on flash frying where capacity will be increased by 300%.
It saw strong demand for its potato chip products in 2018, helping it grow sales by 20%. The acquisition of Savoury & Sweet pushed the figure to 54%. The company highlighted that it is outperforming the crisps, snacks and nuts market with value sales increasing by 4% in the year to 21 April 2019 (IRI 52 w/e April 2019).
Burts Snacks now expects to grow sales by 25% to £54.9m this year after its revenue in the first six months hit £25m. The company stated that its strong performance had been driven by sales in all market segments, particularly the ‘better for you’ category.
Burts Snacks is now targeting sales of £100m by 2022. David Nairn, Managing Director of the firm, commented: “At a time when other UK snack manufacturers are consolidating into larger, multi-national portfolios, at Burts Snacks, we’re bucking the trend by staying true to our core values by remaining independent and investing in our people, products and facilities to ensure we maintain our status as the leading specialist in premium brand and private label snacks.”
