Recent headlines read: “You can pre-order Girl Scout cookies online” (including gluten free Toffee-tastic™) and “Liz Lovely Gluten Free Vegan Cookies Selling For $2.50 Each.” It reminds me of just how far gluten-free products have come in a fairly short period of time. When I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease some 15 years ago, most retail workers (generally speaking) looked at me with a blank stare when I asked about their gluten-free offerings. But in the past half decade or so, the popularity of the gluten-free diet has dramatically increased.
One consumer benefit is the massive uptick in great-tasting gluten-free products – yes, including packaged cookies and other baked goods and mixes – now available on retail shelves. For example:
- Tribeca, NY-based Goodie Girl Cookies debuted in 2010 and continues to gain steam, distributing not only through local New York-area outlets but a growing roster of mainstream national retailers as well, including Kroger, Target, The Fresh Market, Walmart and Whole Foods.
- Dallas-based Hail Merry, founded in 2008, now sells products nationally at Costco, Hannaford, Wegmans, Whole Foods, and other natural and specialty grocers, such as Fresh Thyme.
In summer 2015, homegrown gluten-free baking mix brand Among Friends of Ann Arbor, Mich. secured distribution deals with Kroger, Publix and Target. The brand is now available in an estimated 5,500 stores nationwide.
- And the aforementioned Liz Lovely Cookies – whose pitch on Shark Tank Season 4 in 2012 was rejected – continues to grow beyond its Vermont home base. Its product is now available in several national grocery chains, including Wegmans, Whole Foods and Safeway.
This new product proliferation is a gluten-free dieter’s dream: More options available for those with celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) and the many other Americans choosing a gluten-free lifestyle. For now and into the foreseeable future, gluten-free shoppers can rejoice at the choice.
Key Takeaways
- Going forward, expect the rapid increase in new specialty product introductions will eventually lead to consolidation, an uptick in merger & acquisition activity, and some shake-out in the long run.
- Don’t think that big national brand marketers will sit idly by and watch a high-growth, albeit niche, category and related market share slip away to small lesser-known start-ups.
- We expect a growing roster of big consumer packaged goods manufacturers will explore, experiment with and enter the gluten-free space – some through grass-roots efforts, others through acquisition. Some M&A activity worth noting: last year’s Mondelēz International/Enjoy Life Foods deal and Pinnacle Foods acquisition of Boulder Brands, which closed last week.