Americans are losing their taste for Lunchables.
Sales of the compartmentalized meat and cheese meal marketed to kids and their busy parents in colorful boxes slid 12% during the quarter ending on November 3, according to Circana data.
Lunchables’ slide is hurting its parent company, Kraft Heinz. Kraft Heinz’s sales dropped 2.2% last quarter, nearly half of which was driven by Lunchables. The company is scrambling for a fix to its nearly $2 billion brand.
Lunchables for us is a top priority,” said Diana Frost, Kraft Heinz’s global chief growth officer, in an interview with CNN. “We are committed to its long-term growth.”
Lunchables are struggling because parents are worried that the meals aren’t healthy options, Lunchables’ strategy to get on school lunch menus turned into a black eye for the brand, and competition for meat and cheese alternatives at the grocery store has cut into sales, analysts say.
The end result isn’t just that Lunchables sales are down — numerous competitors have popped up, including Lunchly by YouTube stars Logan Paul and MrBeast. The brand’s market share has dropped about 25 percentage points since its 2018 levels to roughly 60% of the market this year, according to data from Euromonitor.
It’s not like Kraft Heinz has simply watched while the market swirled around it. The company made a bet in recent years on bringing Lunchables directly to school menus, estimating it was a $25 billion opportunity to expand.
Read more at CNN.com
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