7 Snack Business Ideas

So you’re ready to start a snack business.

You’ve seen the statistics of the growing industry, and you’ve seen how poorly your peers snack. But what sort of snack business should you start? If you’re still trying to decide, here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

Fruits

Wait, all fruits are a commodity, right? Why would anyone want to buy your fruits? Well, if you add some value, you can turn that commodity into something people are willing to pay a little extra money for. To start with, you can nicely chop them, saving people time.

You can also add your own unique labeling or packaging to them, similar to how Liquid Death added heavy metal inspired packaging to water and turned it into a $700M company (yes, water, and yes, $700M).

Another way you could add value is through your selection. Maybe you can select the best fruits, or maybe you know a way to get cheaper fruits. Misfits Markt built their entire company on sourcing odd-shaped fruits and vegetables, and that company is now worth around $1.1B.

Cookies

It’s quite clear that everyone loves cookies. Over the past few years, cookie chain Crumbl has grown into a massive business, doing $1B in sales annually! Their focus on a quality product, in-store experience, and their strategic marketing of limited releases has made them extremely successful.

While you may think it’s tough to compete with Crumbl, there’s still opportunity to build a successful cookie business. If I were launching a cookie business, I would focus on a specific flavor profile, like Asian-flavors, and source the best ingredients at the best prices for that profile.

But there’s other ways to differentiate. Levain Cookies are known for their very large, somewhat doughy cookies. In business, especially, when it comes to food, it pays to be different. Especially in a crowded market like cookies, you need to focus in on what makes you different, and be different long enough to find your true fans.

Gummies/gummy bears

Many popular gummy bear brands have gelatin, which is derived from pigs. Although I’m not a vegetarian, I find it unnecessary and odd to consume pig while having a gummy bear.

So one angle for a gummy business could be to use more natural and animal-free ingredients.

Gummies are also becoming a popular mechanism for consuming supplements. Creatine gummies, for example, have become very popular. It makes sense, I would rather chew a lightly sweetened gummy than have to mix powder into milk and water, which may or may not taste that good.

Therefore another angle for a gummy business is to combine them with some supplement that you or your friends enjoy.

Macaroons

Macaroons are one of my favorite pastries. While they seem tough to make, they command a high price of $2-$3 for something that is the size of a bite or two at most.

The advantage here is that there isn’t a lot of competition for macaroons.

Not to mention, it’s a quickly growing market. Over the next 10 years, the U.S. and Europe macarons market is expected to double! Demand is surging due to increased demand for premium macaron products such as chocolate macarons, caramel macarons, and others.

Twinkie competitor (puff pastry)

About 10 years ago, Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, declared bankruptcy. This led an opportunistic investment firm to buy them for $410 million. Fast forward 10 years later, and that firm sold Hostess for $4.6 billion!

What can we learn from this? Well, Americans love their twinkies. Partly because of nostalgia, but also because they are nice snacks to have.

So one idea is to launch a better (or different) version of the twinkie. I like business ideas like these because the demand is already validated, people clearly love these things. Now you just need to convince them to try yours.

Smoothies

There aren’t a lot of smoothie shops out there besides Jamba Juice and Smoothie King.

Just like there used to be only Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks coffee shops, I think smoothies are due for a revival and perhaps a ‘second wave’. Consumers will seek out new flavors and local shops instead of going to the same chains.

Cold Brew

This one’s a little out there, but as a big fan of cold brew and iced coffee myself, I think a cold brew business could do well.

Most coffee shops specialize in hot coffee, but if you specialize in iced and cold coffee, then you differentiate yourself and make it so that people who prefer cold coffee seek you out.

You could experiment with different flavors and processes as well. For example, I prefer to have my coffee brewed hot, and then frozen for about an hour to 90 minutes. Who knows, you could unlock an entire new market.

Conclusion

Snack businesses are great to start because it’s a growing industry, it’s easier to scale than a restaurant or other types of food businesses, and you get to be creative with your process and flavors.

Feel free to steal these snack ideas, or let them inspire you on your own entrepreneurial path.

If you’re thinking of starting a business, don’t overlook snacks. While we think of snacks as something that big corporations with big budgets have taken over, there’s absolutely an opportunity to start small and scale up.

SnackDial is here to help at any stage of your business you find yourself in, even pre-launch.

- Kenny Kandola