LENEXA, Kan.—Hostess Brands is expanding its packaged sweet snacks lineup with caffeinated donuts, and the new creations are showing up nationwide in convenience stores now.
“For adults who are increasingly looking for alternative sources of caffeine, our new Hostess Boost Jumbo Donettes offer a tasty, energy-boosting, grab-and-go way to jumpstart the day,” said Christopher Balach, general manager of Hostess Brands.
Hostess Boost Jumbo Donettes will each contain 50-70 milligrams of caffeine, which is slightly less caffeine than one cup of coffee. The donuts will come in two flavors—chocolate mocha and caramel macchiato.
Three times as big as the original Hostess Donettes mini donuts, Hostess Boost Jumbo Donettes are caffeinated with coffee bean extract and are lightly glazed. The chocolate mocha variety combines the flavors of chocolate and espresso coffee, and the caramel macchiato variety combines caramel and espresso coffee flavors. Both varieties come in a 2.5-ounce single-serve package at a suggested retail price of $2.49.
Nearly every convenience store sells packaged sweet snacks, and the category in the past has been a top 10 in-store sales and gross margin contributor. However, the pandemic took its toll on the category in 2020.
“Gross margins for the category dropped from 41.00% in 2019 to 38.57% in 2020, leading to a total gross profit decline of 7.4% year over year,” Jayme Gough, NACS research manager, told NACS Magazine in “Poised for a Comeback” in the August 2021 issue. In terms of subcategories, according to the NACS State of the Industry Report of 2020 data, only muffins/donuts grew sales and gross profits in 2020. THe packaged sweet snacks category was expected to show improvement in 2021 as c-store traffic picked up.
A category deep dive at the 2022 NACS State of the Industry Summit, which will take place April 12-14 in Chicago, will give an overview of the 2021 performance of the candy and snacks categories in the convenience retail channel. Hear from Tim Young, category manager, Newcomb Oil Co., who will lead the session.