Free-from brand 9bar is looking to shake up the snack market with the launch of savoury snack bars into Waitrose.

Supplier Wholebake is rolling out three of its four variants - Anglesey sea salt, cracked black pepper and sweet chilli - to 40 Waitrose stores from 29 April (rsp: 65p/30g bar) and said it was confident there was demand for a savoury bar in a market dominated by sweet products.

It said finding a non-sweet binder for the sunflower, pumpkin and hemp seeds in the bar had been challenging but that seeds lent themselves to savoury flavours and using upmarket crisp flavours increased their likely appeal. “It is a risk but we felt there was enough strength in the 9bar brand to develop this successfully,” said MD Mark Gould.

The market was ripe for a savoury bar, said Mintel director of innovation and insight Lynn Dornblaser. The fact it was being launched by an established free-from brand was “a big positive”, she added.

Wholebake saw volumes of 9bar increase by around 3m in 2012, and it has spent £800,000 over the last 9 months doubling capacity of its 9bar facility in North Wales.

Sweet 9bar products are stocked at Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Holland & Barrett and more than 1,000 indie retailers.

The savoury bars are also listed with wholesalers Suma and Tree of Life and will launch in the health food trade at the Natural Products show at Olympia on 7 April.

US brands, Gardenbar and Journey Bar, launched savoury bars in the US market last year.

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