The new boss of Seabrook crisps has put the brakes on the brand’s southern expansion and launched a range review as he looks to stem a decline in sales.

Former Vimto soft drinks MD Jonathan Bye, who joined Seabrook last month, believed there was an opportunity for the Bradford-based business to play a stronger role in the crisps category by focusing on its northern heartland.

The company has abandoned its plan to build a second factory to drive sales and distribution in the south, with Bye saying the immediate priority would be Yorkshire, Lancashire and the North East.

“Short-term, I’m going to focus absolutely on our heartland - there’s a massive amount of distribution and extra sales to be had,” he added. “The aspiration is to take the brand further but it needs to be more controlled, in years two and three rather than year one.”

Bye said a lack of consumer understanding of the brand was a key reason for a sharp decline in sales over the past year, with value down 14% to £36m, while volumes have crashed 28% [SymphonyIRI 52w/e 12 May 2012]. Meanwhile, the rising costs of ingredients such as potatoes and sunflower oil had reduced the profitability of the brand’s increasing promotional activity - it has run 539 promotions in the past 12 months compared with just 95 over the same period two years ago [BrandView].

Bye has launched a review to better understand the brand’s consumer base and plans to rationalise the range.

He is also reviewing the flavour profiles of the Goodbye Salt, Hello Flavour products, which have struggled to maintain listings since their launch last year.

He remained optimistic about the brand’s target of £63m sales by 2015, however. “It’s definitely achievable. The first thing is to stabilise the business,” he said.

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