Leading branded meal and snack manufacturer, Symington’s, is making major in-roads into the US with listings for a further six products from its Naked range set to launch in Walmart stores this month.
Symington’s estimates sales to Walmart are on track to deliver $17.5 million RSV over the next two years
The Leeds-based manufacturer initially struck a deal last year with Walmart to list five Naked Noodle products in over 3,000 stores.
Sales of those five products alone means that Naked is on track to be a top five brand within Walmart’s dry soup category by the end of October.
On the back of this initial success, a further 13 listings were achieved in February across both Symington’s Naked and Twistd ranges, in over 2,000 Walmart stores.
These include four Naked Rice products, five Twistd couscous variants and four Twistd rice products, this month’s latest listings include Naked Ramen Soups and Naked Big Eat Noodle pots.
David Cox, chief executive officer of Symington’s said: “Getting a foothold into the US market is notoriously difficult for British food manufacturers, especially one of our size. It has been a huge achievement for the business and testament to the fantastic branding and quality of both Naked and Twistd.
“The Walmart tie-up is part of our ambitious international plan over the next three years and our strategic approach to take back control, concentrate on our own brands and exit from licensed manufacturing agreements.
"We are having a number of joint discussions on future product innovation so hopefully the listings are just the beginning of an ongoing strategic relationship.”
The Naked brand includes instant noodle and rice pots, soup sachets and pouches as well as noodle-based ramen soups. Focused on bringing new health conscious shoppers into the instant noodle category, whilst delivering a convenient, authentic Asian taste experience which can be enjoyed at home or on the go, the brand has generated consistently strong growth over the last five years.
The Walmart success was recognised this year in the Food Manufacture Excellence Awards where the Symington’s team won the prestigious ‘Export Award’. The Naked brand won ‘Snack Pot Product of the Year’ last year (Consumer Survey of Product Innovation 2019).
Symington’s launched the Twistd brand a year ago, offering a delicious range of flavoured couscous, super grains, grains and pulses, flavoured risotto, wet cup soup sachets, snack pots and world flavoured rice, based on global food trends and authentic flavours.
Mr Cox added: “Our plans are fully focused on extending Twistd in to the US, just as we have already achieved with Naked.”
