Gotham Insights
Salty Snacks
Salty Snacks Market:
Post-covid Reset, With Value-tier/Private-label Brands As Emerging Growth Vectors And Alignment With Popular Trends
Gotham recently completed customer & market due diligence of a value-tier salty snack manufacturer. In this industry insight, we highlight how the salty snack market is navigating a post-covid reset, why value-tier categories are well-positioned amid shifting consumer behavior, and why private label represents a meaningful untapped growth opportunity.
A Post-covid Pricing Surge Has Flattened Salty Snack Market Volumes
- The salty snacks category grew at a 12.5% CAGR post-covid, primarily driven by pricing, with Frito-Lay (~50% category share) implementing ~17% and ~10% price increases in 2022 and 2023
- Stagnant wage growth, persistent inflation, and SNAP benefit reductions have materially pressured lower-income consumers’ discretionary snacking budgets
- Lower-income consumers are increasingly trading down from premium brands to value-tier offerings or exiting the salty snack category altogether
The Consumer Flight To Value-tier Alternatives Has Benefited Private-label Brands In The Salty Snack Market
- Consumer openness to private label has grown alongside financial stress; private-label quality improvements have also narrowed the perceived gap with national brands, further reducing the barriers to trial and repeat purchases among value-conscious shoppers
- Private-label penetration in the salty snack market grew from 7.9% in 2022 to 8.5% in 2025, but still trails overall grocery private-label penetration of 18%, with the ~10% point gap representing a meaningful runway
- Retailer shelf sets have historically featured a mainstream national brand, select regional brands, and one private-label option; increasingly, mainstream grocery retailers are adding a lower-tier private-label SKU to compete with dollar channel assortments
Ready-to-eat Popcorn And Extruded Snacks Are Best Positioned To Benefit From Better-for-you Trend And The GLP-1 Tailwinds In The Salty Snack Category
- While GLP-1 adoption broadly reduces caloric intake, it disproportionately impacts high-fat, high-sugar categories, leaving high-protein and low-calorie snack categories relatively insulated or even advantaged
- Ready-to-eat popcorn is broadly perceived as a healthier snacking option given its low-calorie, high-fiber profile, and continues to gain shelf presence as retailers expand better-for-you snack sets
- Extruded snacks are benefiting from flavor innovation and a health-adjacent perception driven by their airy texture and crunchy mouthfeel, positioned as a lighter alternative to traditional fried snacks
For further details on Gotham's salty snack market insights, please click below.
To learn more about Salty Snacks, please contact:
insights@gcpny.com