Sneakersnacks

COMPANY PROFILE

2014

Sneaker Snacks

011 626 1660 | www.sneakersnack.co.za

company profile

Fancy a snack?

Editorial: Harriet Pattison Production: Hal Hutchison

With Nax, Sniggles and Wiggles, Sneaker Snacks is one of South Africa’s best-selling snack companies.

With new product lines on the horizon and plans to expand further into Southern Africa, it’s easy to see why this company has experienced such exponential growth in just 15 years…

When we tend to think about the day ahead, what we have planned and where we need to be, having lunch at a set time is not always feasible. This is often where snack-time comes in. Whether you have a sweet tooth or a savoury one, snacks help us through the day until our next main meal.

In 1998, partners Boris Popovic and Geof Main spotted a gap in the South African market for tasty, convenient and moreish snacks. Today, Sneaker Snacks has grown into a reliable and customerfocused company, selling both hard and soft extrude maize-based products, potato chips and maize based sweet snacks.

Soft extrude products are made from maize grits using a different process to that of the hard extrudes.

Whilst the former is baked with flavourings applied through slurry methods, hard extrudes are crunchier

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and are fried before flavours are added.

Speaking to IndustrySA, Co-founder and Managing Director, Boris Popovic, explains the reason for starting the company: “There was some consolidation among some of the bigger players and we saw there was a gap for smaller to medium companies to come into the market. So we came in to primarily serve the mass market in South Africa.”

Popovic admits it was “a big career change” as both came from completely different backgrounds before starting up Sneaker Snacks. While Popovic was in the commercial property development sector, business partner Geof Main came from a computing background.

EARLY EXPANSION “We started off small with one product line,” explains Popovic, “This was the hard extrudes product, the

Sneaker Snacks

Sneaker Nax. Over the years we’ve added a number of new lines and expanded our production capacity.

At the moment, we produce potato chips and whole range of extruded maize products in various flavours and packaging configurations .We also produce maize based sweet product lines in the form of “Craze Pops” and “Fruities.”

Starting out in a modest factory, at just over 1000sqm, Popovic explains that as production grew and the company continued to expand, it outgrew many other factories along the way. “Five years ago, we bought our own property and built a new factory on it. We are bursting at the seams again so we are looking to expand and at acquiring another property.”

INDUSTRY COMPETITION Since the company’s inception 15 years ago, competition in the industry has continued to grow

but by increasing its product range, maintaining competitive price points and maintaining high quality, Sneaker Snacks remains a key industry leader.

In an interview with The African Business Journal, Geof Main explains: “When we started, we had a handful of players in the market; you could count them on one hand. Almost 15 years down the line, there are upwards of 150 competitors, so we rely on our diverse product range, high service levels and producing a quality product.”

Popovic explains that Sneaker Snack’s brand image was a vital step in setting it apart from the competition: “A lot of our competitors tried to pirate and copy established brands in the existing market but we moved away from that, we established our own identity through our logo and through the branding of our products.”

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company profile

Expanding into bigger premises and into neighbouring African countries has also helped to establish the company as a big name player in the industry. Popovic explains: “We cover most of Southern Africa in terms of our footprint. We are looking at expansions, additional snack lines and have ordered new equipment. We will be offering another product range by the end of the year too. We are also expanding our existing lines and increasing our capacity. In the next year or two, we are adding additional lines which are complementary to our snacks and are more in a general food line category.”

Despite more competition emerging in the market, Popovic explains that “through our volumes we are

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able to keep our prices competitive and still focus on product quality and growing our brand in the market.”

Many of Sneaker Snacks’ products are sold to wholesalers and cash and carry businesses who in turn sell it on to smaller stores and the hawker market. “When we started we only packed into 1kg or 2kg plastic bags and then hawkers would decant this into smaller packaging sizes and onsell to the end consumer,” Popovic explains. Over the years the mass market has become much more sophisticated and quality packaging and branding has become important. Today, Sneaker Snacks provides conveniently-sized snack packets, perfect for school

Sneaker Snacks lunch boxes, sealed in quality foil packaging for freshness.

QUALITY FOCUSED Popovic explains that in the early years, much of the competition tended to focus on price points rather than quality of the product. To help raise the bar even further, Sneaker Snacks decided to steer away from this and attract the top end of the market, focusing on those who were willing to pay for good quality.

“Quality focus was always at the forefront of our business, especially in the early years because a lot of our competitors competed on price alone and the quality was the secondary issue. We decided to target the top end of the mass market, the people who would be prepared to pay a premium for quality.

“This has always been the cornerstone of our business and still remains today. We’ve invested in the best equipment money can buy, state of the art packaging machines and in house, we’ve developed technology and processes that enable us to maintain that quality and continue to improve it,” explains Popovic.

SOUTH AFRICAN FAVOURITES The company has two major lines which continue to be popular across South Africa and into neighbouring countries. Popovic explains that Nax remain the company’s best seller with flavours ranging from cheese to chilli tomato and Sniggles, the soft extrude puffs which are available in white cheddar and spring onion, butter-fried corn or chilli-fried corn. The baked soft extrude products “are very well received,” says Popovic, adding: “We’d like to grow the potato chip line in the future.”

Coming up with new products that will be just as popular to consumers is not always an easy process but Popovic explains it is all about trial and error.

“The mass market in South Africa is very difficult to read, a lot of companies get it wrong and a lot of it is trial and error. You come up with an idea, but until you push it into the market, it’s very difficult to gage if it’s going to work or not. We do market research and samplings but there’s nothing like putting the product into the market and seeing what happens.

Over the years we’ve introduced lots of new products, some of them worked but some of them haven’t worked and that’s the nature of the game.”

Supplier of corn-based snack food processing equipment.

MADDOX ADAMS INTERNATIONAL SA

Address : Cnr. Lamp and Lantern Roads, Wadeville, Germiston, South Africa Email address : maddoxad@iafrica.com Telephone number : +27 (0)11 824 2847 Fax number : +27 (0)11 824 2849

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company profile

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Sneaker Snacks RUNNING 24 HOURS A DAY With such exponential growth over the last 15 years, Sneaker Snacks now has 350 employees, all playing their part in ensuring the company remains customer and quality focused.

“The manufacturing is where it all starts, our factory manager looks after all the factory production and we run 24 hours a day, either five or six days a week, depending on demand. Within production there’s quality control, dispatch and distribution. We have a fleet of our own trucks which we use for distributing our own product to service our customers. We are also using contract transport, especially for long haul and export business.”

With Geof Main head of Sales and Marketing, Popovic explains the sales division ensure contact is kept with the customers on a regular basis. “Our business relies heavily on our relationships with our customers and Geof ’s primary task is to establish and nurture these relationships. We have sale reps on the road and telesales that are in contact with customers on a daily basis, seeing what their requirements are

and taking orders. We also have merchandisers and promoters that ensure our products are merchandised and displayed correctly.”

Of course, like so many food products, specific times of the year are busier than others with school holidays a particularly quiet time for the company, while the beginning of the year sees an increase in both sales and activity.

With healthier snacks becoming much more of a trend in the market, Popovic explains that through use of latest technology and best manufacturing practices, the company produces fried snacks with one of the lowest oil contents

“We cover most of South Africa in terms of our footprint. We are looking at expansions, additional snack lines and have ordered new equipment”

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company profile in the market. New, baked products with very low oil contents will be launched soon to cater for the health conscious segment of the market.

The company is also working very closely with flavour suppliers to reduce the salt contents of its products.

A SUCCESSFUL FUTURE Building on such a successful company, Popovic attributes its ongoing success to four main factors: dedicated staff, the quality of the Sneaker Snacks’ product, ensuring price competitiveness and focusing heavily on customer service.

Looking forward to a successful future, Popovic explains it’s all about expansion: “We definitely see more growth potential in our existing lines, with potential to expand our product range. We don’t just want to be leaders in our existing lines but the leader in other lines too.”

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A multinational success at the tender age of 16.

FNB is proud to congratulate Sneaker Snacks on 16 years of outstanding success.

MetropolitanRepublic/15340/E

From a modest factory with a single production line, they’ve grown into a multinational manufacturer producing almost 1 300 tons of maize products monthly. And we’ve been with them every step of the way.

Here’s to a future of success!

If your business is going far we can help you get there.

For more information, contact Jacques Mendes on (011) 263 5281, 082 860 2876 or email jacques.mendes@fnb.co.za First National Bank – a division of FirstRand Bank Limited. An Authorised Financial Services and Credit Provider (NCRCP20).

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Passionate, Creative, Colourful

Sneaker Snacks SA

SUPPLIER OF FLAVOURS AND COLOURS TO THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN FOOD INDUSTRY

Versachem is a proud supplier of Colours & Flavours to Sneaker Snacks Versachem is a well-established ethical manufacturer.

Our facility achieved FSA Good Manufacturing Practicecertification in 2012 to give our customers peace of mind in terms of consistent product quality, safety, and traceability.

We are also able to manufacture and supply Kosher and Halaal-certified colours and flavours on request.

Our qualified Food Technologists & Flavourists develop innovative colours & flavours in our laboratory and we produce consistently high quality products at competitive prices We are members of the South African Savoury Snack Food Organisation (SASSFO), South African Association of the Flavour & Fragrance Industry (SAAFFI), and South African Association for Food Science & Technology (SAAFoST).

We supply Colours & Flavours to the following industries:

• Extruded Snacks

• Bakery

• Potato Chips

• Beverages

• Processed Meats

• Candy

• Sauces, Gravies & Soups

• Confectionery

• Nuts

• Dairy

• Soya

• Pet Food

• Agricultural

Tel No. : +27 12 653 4447 | Fax No. : +27 12 653 7561 e-mail : info@versachem.co.za | websitre : www.versachem.co.za Address : 5 Marconi Nook, Hennops Park, Centurion, 0157, South Africa

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+44 (0) 1603 411569 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, 2 Ardney Rise Norwich, Norfolk NR3 3QH

www.industrysa.co.za