Mondelez is expanding its Ritz brand into the £2.7bn bagged snack ­category with the launch of Ritz Crisp & Thin.

The supplier said the baked snack - made from potato flour - would be the first of several major extensions for the cracker brand. Crisp & Thin will be available from 11 May in a 100g flat-bottomed sharing bag (rsp: £2.19) and a 30g individual bag (rsp: 79p) in four flavours: cream cheese & onion and salt & vinegar (available in both sizes), sweet red chilli and sea salt & black pepper (sharing bags only).

A 30g portion contains 135 calories, 4.8g fat and 0.4g salt while standard crisps contain about 150 calories, 7g to 9g of fat and 0.6g salt.

Crisp & Thin was developed in the UK, which is the first market it is rolling out to. Mondelez will follow the launch with a £10m campaign over the next seven months, including TV, outdoor, sampling and in-store activity.

“Ritz is an iconic brand with 93% consumer awareness,” said Rick Lawrence, category lead for biscuits, crisps and snacks at Mondelez. “Our strong brand heritage and 81 years of baking expertise mean we are uniquely placed to create a new segment to expand savoury snacks.

“The UK is the biggest consumer of savoury snacks in Europe. Currently dominated by the traditional fried potato crisp, there is significant room for snacks to be bigger within the category. This is the first launch of many geared up to drive significant growth in savoury snacks in the UK.”

Ritz is worth £19m after recording 33% growth last year [Nielsen 52 w/e 21 January 2015], thanks in part to the launch of on-the-go format Ritz Breaks last April and a six-week TV push - the first for the brand in 30 years.

The bagged snacks category grew 1.1% on flat volumes [Nielsen 52 w/e 11 October 2014].

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