Kind Aims to Disrupt Breakfast With Ready-to-Eat Smoothie Bowls

Kind, the company widely known for its snack bars, has a new breakfast offering: smoothie bowls. The ready-to-eat frozen items, which come in flavors such as almond chocolate banana and almond and triple berry acai, contain a maximum of 9 grams of added sugar. Mike Barkley, CEO of Kind North America, said while some breakfast options are either tasty, healthy or convenient, very few possess all three qualities. Kind’s smoothie bowls do, he explained. “All you need is a spoon,” Barkley added. Smoothie bowls are quite popular these days. Online searches for “smoothie bowl” have spiked throughout the past 12 months, according to Google Trends. Just last week, kitchen appliance maker Ninja hired its first “smoothie bowl sommelier”—the honor went to registered dietitian and online personality Gillean Barkyoumb—who will help promote the company’s blenders. Kind’s smoothie bowls contain no more than 9 grams of added sugar. Champions of at-home breakfast The launch comes nearly a year after the World Health Organization (WHO) first classified Covid-19 as a pandemic and people began to eat at home more frequently. Restaurants saw a 13% decline in customers visiting for breakfast in 2020 compared to 2019, according to figures from the NPD Group, a market research firm. Some breakfast options have gained share during the pandemic as students and workers alike aren’t in a rush to get out the door, including eggs, bagels, fruit and pancakes. Cold cereal remains the top item people eat in the morning, but overall, sales have remained flat. And it’s not as though the makers of Cheerios and Frosted Flakes haven’t tried. Cold cereal brands spent $429 million on advertising in 2020, up 5% compared to the previous year, according to data analytics firm Kantar. “At first, cold cereal consumption jumped in April and May, but more recently dipped below 2019 levels,” Darren Seifer, food and beverage analyst at the NPD Group, told Adweek. “I believe consumers stocked up on cold cereal during the panic buying in March and April of 2020. But as lockdowns dragged on and consumers looked for more variety, they opted for other categories.” Seifer added that because breakfast is the meal most associated with health, people will always be motivated to seek out healthier options. “The key is to provide health as a time-saver in the kitchen, since many consumers are making more meals in their home than ever before,” he said. Kind’s smoothie bowls, which were in development prior to the public health crisis, join the brand’s other products designed for mornings, such as oatmeal, cereal and breakfast bars. Part of the Mars family In late 2017, the family-owned Mars company took a minority stake in Kind. Last November, the maker of Snickers and M&M's acquired Kind’s business in North America. Apart from providing Mars with a healthier alternative to chocolate bars, the partnership has allowed Kind to accelerate its expansion into new countries and categories. Consumers, however, shouldn’t expect unbridled innovation from Kind in the coming years. “Just because we can launch a lot of new products in a lot of new places doesn't mean we should,” Barkley said. Twinkies Are About to Become a Breakfast Cereal