FDBusiness.com

A range of coated oven snacks from the Dutch manufacturer Royaan is shaking things up in the frozen snack foods market. Having won Food Personality’s “2015 FoodTopAward” at the end of April, Royaan’s Kwekkeboom Oven range has topped things off by being awarded the “Golden Wheel of Retail” – the biggest prize in the Dutch retail world. Both awards are presented to the most important introductions in the Dutch food trade.

Kwekkeboom Oven also received two additional prizes in Distrifood Magazine’s “Wheel of Retail” competition: the “Category Wheel” for the best introduction within frozen foods and the “Innovation Wheel” for the most exciting new product during 2014. As well as being important for Royaan, these awards are a great endorsement for Crisp Sensation, the inventor and license holder of the novel coating process used in Kwekkeboom Oven snacks.

It is highly unusual for one brand to win both of these important retail awards. The holistic judging criteria make Kwekkeboom’s success particularly meaningful, as they covered actual retail sales as well as assessments by retail buyers and consumers. Of all introductions in the retail trade, food and non-food, Kwekkeboom Oven achieved the second highest turnover, and the highest for food products. Additionally, all awards nominees were rated on category value creation, category business growth and consumer acceptance by a jury of retail category managers and buyers from the Netherlands’ major retailers. And last but not least, consumer research, in which consumers assessed the nominees on preference, was taken into account. Royaan was also praised for its outstanding commercial campaign.

According to Bart Bakker, CEO of Royaan, the company’s success owes much to its partnership with Crisp Sensation, the inventor of the unique coating process used for the Kwekkeboom Oven range: “Having an excellent commercial strategy and plan will only work with an excellent product,” he says. “Superior product performance lies at the heart of any successful introduction, and that is exactly what Kwekkeboom Oven offers. It is clear that without the Crisp Sensation technology, this would not have been possible.”

Outstanding Crispness

Following a two-year development process with the Crisp Sensation specialists, Royaan introduced the Kwekkeboom Oven range to Dutch retail stores in October 2014. The products immediately set a new impulse on the highly competitive but stagnant snack foods market. The range comprises beef croquettes, the Dutch speciality “bitterballen”, cheese dippers and chicken nuggets – the latter in pure chicken or with added Italian, saté or curry sauce fillings. Thanks to the innovative Crisp Sensation coating system, the oven snacks have an excellent crumb comparable to deep fried snacks and a core that remains juicy and tender, even hours after preparation. These superior properties allow for a premium price point and secure above-average margins for retailers. This fact has been more than proven in practice: Regardless of its clear price premium versus competing products, retailers in the Netherlands report outstanding consumer acceptance of the Kwekkeboom Oven range.

Sustainable Partnership

Manufacturers across the globe who want to make use of the Crisp Sensation technology can do so under license and within a long-term partnership that also comprises expert support in product development and implementation. To give consumers an at-a-glance guarantee that they are purchasing a premium quality snack, Crisp Sensation has developed a co-branding logo for use on-pack.

For more information visit the Crisp Sensation website – www.crispsensation.com.