Naturex has launched a major new drive to highlight how its range of fruit ingredients could help manufacturers inject growth into the competitive market for premium quality indulgent products, such as cakes, biscuits, confectionery and desserts.
The French company produces a selection of processed fruit ingredients in a variety of formats, including powders, granules and crisps, as well as extracts.
Naturex believes its ingredients could help manufacturers gain an edge in the highly competitive market for sweet treats by creating product concepts that meet demand both for enjoyment and quality as well as clean-labels and improved nutrition content.
Sales of sweet bakery products such as cakes and biscuits were worth 8.56bn across western Europe in 2011, according to Mintel.
However, it is also a very competitive market and growth opportunities can be hard to find with Mintel reporting year-on-year growth in the sweet bakery category between 2010 and 2011 of just 1.3%. Furthermore, forecasts suggest that the market has grown by just 1.6% in 2012.
Despite these figures, Antoine Dauby, marketing director at Naturex was upbeat about the potential offered by his firm's products. "These market conditions mean it is very important for manufacturers to create excitement among shoppers by finding a point of difference that adds value to their proposition," he said.
Dauby added that Naturex products would also enable manufacturers to benefit its offerings in the clean-label sphere.
