Italian food company Barilla has launched a new biscuit SKU, which forms part of its Pan di Stelle range.
Biscocrema, which is free of palm oil, features Pan di Stelle cream and is covered in a thin layer of chocolate and milk cream.
Other ingredients used in the biscuit include 100% Italian-origin hazelnuts, sunflower oil, and soft wheat flour, all of which are sourced from sustainably grown raw materials, according to Barilla.
The vice-president of marketing at the Parma-based group, Julia Schwoerer, said that the launch represents "a natural extension of the [company's] brand expansion strategy".
The Pan di Stelle range of biscuits, cream, cakes, and breakfast cereals posted a very successful year last year, with a turnover of over €100 million, up 50% when compared with 2018.
Nutella Sales
Elsewhere, since launching in November 2019, Ferrero's Nutella Biscuits has seen record sales (6.9 million units, according to Iri data), making it one of the best-performing products in the Italian market in recent years.
The speed of rotation of Nutella Biscuits on store shelves is 2.2 times higher than other Ferrero products like B-ready, the company said, leading Ferrero to increase production at its Balvano plant in Basilicata.
According to the president and CEO of Ferrero Italia, Alessandro d’Este, the company expects Nutella Biscuits to become the best-selling biscuit in Italy, in a market worth about €1.2 billion.
Over the first 12 months, the company expects to sell 25 million packs of the new product.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
