A Second Helping of Food-to-Food Licensing

When we last looked into the food-to-food licensing arena about three months ago, we outlined the large number of new deals involving food and restaurant brands that had come to fruition in the grocery industry in the previous year and a half. And we noted that, despite the crowded landscape, licensing still represents a tiny portion of the total sector.

Several new agreements since then reinforce the idea that there is still room in the market for additional licensed items tied to food and restaurant properties. For example:

• Hostess and Nestlé paired for a range of ice cream, produced by Nestlé and tied to Hostess brands including Twinkies and Sno Balls.
• Dunkin’ Donuts partnered with Kellogg’s for two new flavors of Pop Tarts—frosted chocolate mocha and frosted vanilla latte—inspired by the donut chain’s coffees.
• Jack Daniel’s signed World of Coffee to produce Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey Coffee, infused with Jack Daniel’s; it came to market first in the whiskey maker’s home town of Lynchburg during the holiday selling season, with expanded distribution to follow.
• Mistica Foods and Kellogg’s collaborated on ready-to-cook chicken breast bites breaded with Cheez-It crackers, which launched in Walmart stores in the fall before rolling out nationally.
• Cosmos Creations, a marketer of premium puffed corn snacks in unusual flavors, connected with Jolly Time to create a line of flavored popcorn under the latter’s brand name.

Not all food-related brand-extension deals will remain on store shelves or in freezers or refrigerator cases forever, and many are intended for limited availability. But these deals are another indicator of the opportunities that still exist in the crowded food and beverage sector for licensed food-to-food pairings that make sense. And there are certainly success stories. The Invisible Chef, which introduced licensed Jelly Belly baking mixes early in 2016, recently announced that it was expanding the array, adding birthday celebration and everyday assortments to its original roster of holiday mixes.

Watch for Raugust Communications’ January e-newsletter, scheduled for distribution next Tuesday, January 17. The Licensing Trend of the Month will summarize the many technologies that are making, or will make, a profound impact on licensing across product categories and property types. If you have not yet subscribed to this free publication, you can do so here.