The Crabbie's Alcoholic Ginger Beer brand is moving into snacks, with the launch of a range of ginger-flavoured nuts.
Brand owner Halewood International has joined forces with Sun Valley to produce the snacks, which come in three flavours - Crabbie's Luxury Nut Mix with Lime Pickle Flavour & Crystallised Ginger Pieces; Crabbie's Luxury Ginger Spiced Dry Roasted Peanuts & Cashews and Crabbie's Luxury "Raj Mix" - a blend of nuts, Indian noodles, ginger spiced peanuts & dried fruits. Only the latter two will be available in the on-trade, at an rsp of 75p for a 50g bag.
The company hopes to capitalise on the growth in premium branded nuts within the £57m branded nut market. The snacks are targeted at 25 to 45-year-old men and women.
It is be the first extension outside of alcoholic drinks for the successful brand, which was launched in 2008. A Crabbie's Ginger Mulled Wine was launched earlier this month targeting the festive drinks opportunity.
"Entering the snacks category was the clear choice for extending the brand beyond the UK alcoholic drinks market," said Richard Clark, head of innovation at Halewood. "Crabbie's Ginger Nuts offer a quality range of snacking products containing ginger spices and fruit to give a particularly morish flavoured product for bars and at home, a natural occasion linking drinking and nuts."
The launch will be supported with sampling, consumer PR, joint promotions and PoS and will benefit from a national TV campaign for the ginger beer set to air in November.