KP Snacks has expanded McCoy’s with Muchos – hailed by the supplier as the buoyant crisp brand’s biggest-ever NPD.
Expected to achieve £15m of value sales in its first full year, Muchos is a folded, crescent-shaped tortilla crisp available in three Mexican-style flavours: Smoky Chilli Chicken, Nacho Cheese and Sour Cream & Onion.
They will be on shelf from the end of this month to tap growing demand for Mexican food – now the fourth-largest takeaway cuisine in the UK, according to KP.
“Everything McCoy’s does will be about big flavours, and that’s a big part of the reason we went down the Mexican cuisine track,” KP sales director Andy Riddle told The Grocer.
Each fried Muchos variant is made from corn, wheat and potato, along with a blend of six spices and kidney beans that can be seen in the crisp.
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The NPD is the result of more than a year’s development. A launch originally scheduled for early 2018 was delayed after the crisps were found to break under their own weight, forcing KP to go “back to the drawing board” said Riddle. “Rather than put that out into market, we went back to the drawing board.”
The Muchos trio will be widely available in a sharing bag (rsp: £1.99/180g), while £1 PMP grab packs (80g) of the chicken and cheese variants will roll out exclusively into convenience from 17 March.
As well as being McCoy’s most significant expansion, Muchos was KP’s biggest NPD since it was bought by Intersnack about six years ago, Riddle added. “We think it will be huge.”
The launch will be supported by a £4m spend, including a TV ad and in-store activity.
It comes as McCoy’s value has continued to surge since the brand shook off its association with ‘lads’ and pub-goers and introduced its Chips range. Last year, sales rose 5.8% to £125.5m on volumes up 2.8% [Nielsen 52 w/e 8 September 2018].
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