Innocent is tapping into growing interest in street food with the launch of a range of noodle pots.

Rolling out from April, the four meals will be sold in a similar format to Veg Pots and contain less than 300 calories of noodles, fresh veg and sauce.

The company will be hoping the NPD helps reverse falling food sales, with Veg Pot sales down 5.7% by value and 7% by volume [Symphony IRI 52 w/e 24 November 2012] despite an increase in the depth and number of promotions.

The new noodle range, which is inspired by Asian street food, comprises: Vietnamese curry with udon noodles and edamame beans in a coconut sauce Japanese ramen containing udon noodles and shitake mushrooms in a miso sauce Thai tom yum of rice noodles with red peppers in a hot and sour sauce and Malaysian rendang of rice noodles and red peppers in a coconut sauce.

“Asian street food is one of the UK’s fastest-growing food trends,” said commercial manager Paul Brown. “Our noodle pots will meet this demand for exciting and innovative Asian-inspired food.”

Innocent is discussing listings with retailers that currently stock Veg Pots and said the response from buyers had been “extremely positive”. Like Veg Pots, the noodle pots will have an rsp of £3.79 and will be supported by price promotions alongside PR and digital activity.

“Incentivising as many people as possible to try these products during the first few months will be the main focus of the campaign,” said Brown.

Veg Pots had been hit by changes to promotional strategy, said Innocent, adding that it planned to develop the range this year.

However, sales of its juices and smoothies have soared 43.7% to £205m [Nielsen 52 w/e 13 October 2012], driven by a strong performance by its carafe juice range.

Topics