From a parent concerned about the ingredients in snack foods to having her own range stocked in Woolworth’s, Laura Allan is on a mission to be a market leader in healthy snacks for kids.
Isaac’s Snacks founder, Laura Allan, is intent on becoming the number one snack brand for kids in Australia.
Allan says the current Australian snack market for kids has some misleading and confusing brands, with products targeted to children often containing high levels of sugar, artificial ingredients, flavours, sweeteners, and damaging preservatives.
“We know that two thirds of foods for children sold in Australia do not meet international nutrition recommendations and that our eating habits are set from a very early age,” Allan says.
Source: Isaac’s Snacks
Statista figures say the Australian Lunchbox Snack Market is valued at $4 billion. Globally it’s worth around $90 billion so there is a huge opportunity there and to make a change for this critical age group.
Isaac’s Snacks are now stocked in 900 Woolworths stores and 200 health food stores, with 848 per cent growth in the last six months. Similarly, its D2C business has grown 375 per cent at the same time.
“We are on a mission to support parents and kids in making better food choices and creating a healthier future for generations to come,” she says.
Q When did you start Isaac’s Snacks?
I started in 2019 and launched into the market in 2020. My first stockist was the health food store, Little Hen, in Balaclava, Melbourne.
Q Tell us about your product development process?
I started with recipes I was using at home (I love baking) and then worked with a food technician to scale the product for mass production to break into the retail market. We have two contract manufacturers in Melbourne that are producing the products for us.
Q What were the challenges during that time?
There have been lots of challenges around keeping the products completely natural and being able to maintain a good shelf life. We had to reduce water content to ensure there were no mould issues but then we had to work really hard to make sure the products weren’t too dry.
We refuse to compromise our core values of 10 ingredients or less with no nasties or preservatives, so there are lots of iterations and time spent perfecting each recipe.
Q What products are in the range?
We have three multi pack boxes:
- Fruity Cutie Bite – a fruit and oat muesli bar;
- Jammy Date Bite – an oat and date biscuit: and
- Chiaful Oat Cluster – an oat, chia, and coconut cluster.
We also have our three single oat and fruit bars: Oat So Fruity, Apple of My Pie, and Cacao-coconut.
Q Tell us about the pack design and the packaging?
We want to ensure our packaging is as sustainable as possible but also as convenient as possible for busy parents, so we decided on a multi pack format. Our boxes are fully recyclable, and we will be moving to recycled plastic at the end of the year.
Q Getting into the major supermarkets is notoriously difficult – how did you do it?
Lots of hard work and persistence! I have 14 years’ experience working in consumer goods so know the supermarkets well and how to pull together a good pitch. Plus, Isaac's Snacks is completely unique in the market and is filling a key gap that supermarkets are looking to fill around the healthy lunchbox.
Q What are your goals from your recent Birchal crowfunding campaign?
We’re looking to raise $300,000, with the funds going towards extending domestic growth. We want to expand our distribution, grow our range, increase our D2C business as well as our army of ‘Mumbassadors’. From there, start looking at export markets in New Zealand and Asia
This article first appeared in the June/July 2024 edition of Food & Drink Business magazine.
