Heartland Food Products Group – Sweetener Trends &
Outlook – 22 June 2021
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Specialist:
Title:
Moderator: Nyree Hinton (NH), Third Bridge Sector Analyst
John Kaiser (JK)
Former Director, Purchasing at Heartland Food Products Group LLC
Agenda:
1. Retail demand for water enhancers and zero calorie sweeteners
2. Heartland's RTD (ready-to-drink) beverages and coffee portfolio
3. Private label competitiveness across health and wellness trends
4. High fructose and sugar alternatives outlook
Contents
Q: What’s your overview of the sweeteners industry across the liquid, water enhancers and zero-calorie
solutions? How have market trends evolved over the years?
Q: What would you say is the popularity or consumer demand across the various sweeteners?
Q: Which competitors are potentially innovating in this market? Is the market dominated by Heartland?
Q: How are you assessing the push towards sugar reduction? What is Heartland’s role in this push?
Q: What differentiates the sweeteners? Why would a consumer choose Stevia vs others? Is it purely taste or
about blending with other ingredients such as ice cream or coffee? What are the considerations for adding
sweeteners in a production process and not knowing the effects when combined with other ingredients?
Q: How has Heartland’s business evolved over the years, especially during your time at the company? You
referred to its Splenda brand acquisition.
Q: Heartland is essentially the market leader, particularly with the Splenda brand affinity, but what
percentage would you estimate for Heartland’s share of the artificial sweeteners market? Why hasn’t there
been more competition, whether from private label or new entrants?
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Q: With private label in mind, how can Heartland take advantage of channel trends such as physical retail or
D2C? How could the company possibly take advantage and increase margins in a very favourable
environment, given its large brand affinity and market position?
5
Q: What do you think resonates with consumers in sticking with the Splenda brand?
Q: How would you size the food service opportunity? Do providers have their own ingredient suppliers and
does Heartland have a large market share here?
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Q: Would packaging size and colouring around different flavours or types of sweeteners mean a new entrant
couldn’t market their product by offering similar sizes or colours?
6
Q: How are key ingredients in sweeteners assessed by the FDA for allergens or classifying certain ingredients
6
as allergens? What does this mean for a company such as Heartland?
Q: What’s the allure or importance in marketing the Splenda product as an alternative to sugar? What’s your
take on the health halo? Are artificial sweeteners better for us or are we getting less sugar but consuming
something just as bad?
7
Q: What is Heartland’s approach to product marketing, given the wider claims of sugar not necessarily being
unhealthy? What does Heartland try to convey to consumers when selling its products? Why should
consumers buy Splenda over other natural sugars?
7
Q: What pricing considerations would you highlight? What’s the approximate production or managing cost?
How flexible does Heartland need to be to compete on pricing while maintaining healthy margins and high
volume?
7
Q: How might innovation trend within sweeteners or other enhancers?
Q: What is Heartland’s positioning in the liquid portfolio, whether RTD [ready-to-drink] beverages or
coffee? What weaknesses or strengths would you note across those respective categories?
Q: How do you think RTD beverages and coffee fit within Heartland’s overall strategy? Do these lines
represent a significant percentage of Heartland’s sales?
Q: How much control does Heartland have over supply chain disruptions? Which materials are most costly
to consistently acquire and procure?
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Q: What might be weaknesses in Heartland’s overall market share in sweeteners and other categories or the
business overall? What’s the biggest risk to losing market share over the next few years?
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Q: How would you assess the importance of Heartland’s scale or lack of? The company seems to be playing
in a rather niche market with high market share. Could it be bigger?
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Q: What consumer trends and preferences would you highlight around sweeteners? What are the pace levels
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across the different sweeteners? What are consumers receptive to?
Q: Splenda is a renowned brand which consumers are very familiar with. What is Heartland’s ability to
increase pricing before consumers would consider a private label product or lower quality tier alternative? 10
Q: What is your 3-5-year outlook for sweeteners and some of Heartland’s categories? Are there any notable
consumer preferences? Where is the industry headed?
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Heartland Food Products Group – Sweetener Trends &
Outlook
Transcription begins at 00:00:01 of the recorded material
NH: Welcome to Third Bridge Forum’s Interview entitled Heartland Food Products Group – Sweetener
Trends & Outlook. I’m Nyree Hinton and I will be facilitating today’s Interview with Mr John Kaiser, former
Director of Purchasing at Heartland Food Products Group.
John, before we get started with today’s Interview, please state I agree or I disagree to the following statement:
You understand the definition of material non-public information and agree not to disclose any such
information or any other information which is confidential during this Interview.
JK: I agree.
NH: Could you start by giving the audience an overview of your background and various roles you’ve held in
the industry?
JK: I’m currently with a company called Pegasus Foods. Pegasus is a contract manufacturer for folks like
Chili’s, Panda Express. They also do retail products and contract manufacture for Walmart. Previous to that, I
was with Heartland Food Products, headed up procurement and packaging engineering for Heartland. Before
Heartland, I was with a packaging distributor and manufacturer called Victory Packaging. Victory now is
owned by WestRock. They are the second largest packaging distributor in North America. Before Victory, I
was with Conagra Brands, headed up the packaging procurement for Conagra. Before Conagra, Coca-Cola,
headed up glass and secondary packaging for Conagra or for Coca-Cola throughout the world. Then was with
Pillsbury Pet. Pillsbury now is owned by General Mills. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the food industry, very
versed in food and in packaging.
[00:02:09]
Q: What’s your overview of the sweeteners industry across the liquid, water enhancers and zero-calorie
solutions? How have market trends evolved over the years?
JK: The major player in that space is currently Heartland Food Products, which had acquired the Splenda
brand and they have the Splenda products. The main yellow packet is an erythritol-based product. They also
have a Stevia-based product as well and they do a little bit of work in xylitol and some other sweeteners as
well. Erythritol, Stevia, xylitol are really their major products in the sweetener side of the business.
[00:03:25]
Q: What would you say is the popularity or consumer demand across the various sweeteners?
JK: The three oldest-style sweeteners, Sweet’n Low, which is the old Cumberland Packing, that’s sort of the
old-style product… it’s a saccharin-based product. Then you had Equal, which is a Merisant product, which is
in the blue packet. Everything really is colour-coded by tradition and, in fact, it’s kind of been held up in court
that the colours of the sweetener packets from a consumer and a court standpoint have indicated the product
inside the packet. Sweet’n Low being pink, Equal being blue and Splenda erythritol being yellow. Most of the
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Stevia products in the marketplace are in a white packet.
[00:05:11]
Q: Which competitors are potentially innovating in this market? Is the market dominated by Heartland?
JK: The couple innovations that seem to have cropped up here. Number one, we’re seeing some products now
with fibre added, so there’s the combination of a sweetener and a fibre additive. That seems to be a hot trend
right now, so getting your sweetener and getting some added fibre. The other thing we’re seeing is we’re seeing
an improved, better-tasting Stevia. The initial market for Stevia was Stevia products were a little bit bitter and
needed some flavour masking, but we’re seeing an improvement in the refining process and the sweetener
potency of the Stevia products in the market, so, we’re seeing an improved flavour profile of Stevia in the
marketplace.
[00:06:57]
Q: How are you assessing the push towards sugar reduction? What is Heartland’s role in this push?
JK: I think overall, high-fructose corn syrup has really got a bad rap in the marketplace and has really been
tagged with all sorts of issues including obesity and all sorts of bad things. What you’re seeing is you’re seeing
a shift away from high fructose, which is interesting. Corn syrup itself is still used in quite a bit of products like
breakfast syrups, but high fructose is getting a bad rap. You’re seeing a shift from either a move away from
high fructose into a natural sugar, so back to sugar, or what you’re seeing is you’re seeing a move away from
sugar and high fructose altogether into artificial-based sweeteners. The sweeteners in the past, artificial
sweeteners, the Sweet’n Low, have had some aftertaste to them, so through improvement and really refining in
taste profiles, you’re seeing better artificial sweeteners with no aftertaste. The erythritol product, which is
basically the Splenda product, has had a really, really positive influence on the sweetener market. Then you are
seeing, in non-traditional products, the biggest spike in sugar replacement seems to be in the ice cream
category where you’re seeing a lot of these slow-churned ice creams that are lower-sugar. Erythritol is
replacing sugar in some of these ice creams, and that seems to be having a pretty immense effect on the
sweetener market, at least from a new product category standpoint.
[00:09:58]
Q: What differentiates the sweeteners? Why would a consumer choose Stevia vs others? Is it purely taste or
about blending with other ingredients such as ice cream or coffee? What are the considerations for adding
sweeteners in a production process and not knowing the effects when combined with other ingredients?
JK: For consumer sweeteners, what you’re looking at is you’re looking at the dissipation in hot and cold
liquids, so the easier it is to… you’re not really so (audio distorts 11.12-11.14) coffee because that’s a hot liquid
and most of these sweeteners will dissipate very well in a hot liquid, but in cold drinks like a lemonade or like
an iced tea, you really want to have the product be able to dissolve and dissipate in that cold liquid. That’s
important. Then you want to have heat stability, so you don’t want the product in a hot environment to break
down and cause an aftertaste. Then the third attribute is the taste effect – you want a product that’s got a clean
taste to it and that doesn’t have aftertaste and doesn’t need some type of masking agent. In traditional artificial
sweeteners, (audio distorts 12.15-12.18) which is a very common artificial sweetener, that is heavily used in
(audio distorts 12.28-12.30) gum where you have some type of mint as a masking agent that masks that
artificial aftertaste, so you’re not dealing with that aftertaste effect. You can mask it. You’re trying to find a
clean profile and something that’s heat-stable and even shelf-life-stable.
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[00:13:01]
Q: How has Heartland’s business evolved over the years, especially during your time at the company? You
referred to its Splenda brand acquisition.
JK: On the sweetener side, the pre-measured packets have been the tried and true of the entire sweetener
industry. You’re selling a pre-measured packet. It seems to be a good food service outlet but it also is a strong
retail outlet as well, as the consumer likes that pre-measured product. The Heartland experience has been
moving those consumers, a lot of them, from a pre-measured, some type of liquid, sweetener product into all
sorts of multi-serve uses. You’re starting to see more bulk pack, you’re starting to see two-and-a-half and five-
pound packages of sweeteners, you’re starting to see replacements for sugar in terms of baking and in terms of
home canning. There seems to be a shift from the retail packets, which are the tried and true, into a more bulk
alternative. Then you’re also seeing a shift into some blends where you’re seeing a sugar or brown sugar blend
option. You’re reducing your sugar content in those baking products but you’re also keeping some of that
sugar as a baking and bulking agent. That seems to be a big shift, going from individual packets into more of a
bulk scenario.
[00:15:49]
Q: Heartland is essentially the market leader, particularly with the Splenda brand affinity, but what
percentage would you estimate for Heartland’s share of the artificial sweeteners market? Why hasn’t there
been more competition, whether from private label or new entrants?
JK: What’s interesting is Heartland is a significant market share in the Splenda brand but Heartland also
contract manufactures for quite a few other store brands and private label brands. They have a very strong
position in the branded space and they also have a dominant position in the private label space. I would say
the Splenda brand continues to grow but private label is growing probably a little bit faster. What we see in a
little bit more challenging economic times is private label seems to grow faster and branded products seem to
shrink as the consumer looks at a more value proposition than the branded product, but the branded Splenda
has a very, very strong product recognition. I don’t know the latest retail market trends, but I would say that
Splenda is the dominant player, followed by Sweet’n Low and Equal. Stevia is definitely gaining market share
and Stevia products are gaining market in the retail space.
[00:18:39]
Q: With private label in mind, how can Heartland take advantage of channel trends such as physical retail or
D2C? How could the company possibly take advantage and increase margins in a very favourable
environment, given its large brand affinity and market position?
JK: Again, when you have a dominant effect in the retail space on the branded side, your ability to go into a
Publix or a Kroger or a Walmart and say, “Hey, we’ve got a dominant position and we’re able to also run your
private label product, your great value product or your Priva,” which is the private label for Kroger, the Publix
private label. They have the ability to take advantage of size and scale and run both the retail product and the
private label product and pack them in similar configurations, and also be able to take advantage of the
production efficiencies and, more importantly in today’s market, the transportation efficiencies. If you’re
Kroger and you’re getting a truckload of Splenda delivered to your DC, on that truckload is your private label
product as well, so you’re able to take advantage of that reduced freight cost because you’re piggy-backing onto
the branded product.
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[00:21:03]
Q: What do you think resonates with consumers in sticking with the Splenda brand?
JK: The nice thing is Splenda and yellow are two brand elements. Splenda has a strong brand recognition and
the yellow has a strong brand recognition in terms of colour. The ability for Heartland, I saw recently they’ve
come out with a diabetic health shake in a yellow shrink label for the liquid packaging. It’s got a very, very
strong both US and international name recognition and colour recognition. They’ve really been able to build
on that recognition and expand that into some other ancillary products as well.
[00:22:35]
Q: How would you size the food service opportunity? Do providers have their own ingredient suppliers and
does Heartland have a large market share here?
JK: In the food service sector, Heartland has a pretty significant market (audio cuts out 23.10). Heartland has
been pretty aggressive in the legal system, defending their product position. I think they had won a lawsuit,
I’m not sure if it was Dunkin’ Donuts or McDonald’s, where the consumer had asked for a Splenda and they
were given a private label yellow packet. Heartland was able to defend in court that the consumer preference
was for the brand Splenda or a Heartland-produced alternative. Heartland was able to defend that position a
couple of times in court very successfully. I would say that they have a vast majority of the private label market
in the food service sector.
[00:24:20]
Q: Would packaging size and colouring around different flavours or types of sweeteners mean a new entrant
couldn’t market their product by offering similar sizes or colours?
JK: I think anybody in that market that’s producing, and there are a few people in that market that are
producing a similar type of product, contract manufacturers, and by tradition if you’re an erythritol-based
product, you’re almost forced to go to a yellow. Now, there’s a Splenda yellow and then there are variations of
yellow out there. By tradition, you’re going to have to stay in the colour scheme of the product. If it’s a
saccharin-based product, you’re going to be forced to go into something similar to a Sweet’n Low type of pink.
I think you have a little bit more flexibility in Stevia. We’ve seen Stevia packages in white, we’ve seen Stevia
packages in green, but you’re not going to see any type of variation outside of these colour schemes just
because of the consumer. You’re not trying to re-educate the consumer. They’re pretty much stuck in these
colour scheme patterns.
[00:26:36]
Q: How are key ingredients in sweeteners assessed by the FDA for allergens or classifying certain ingredients
as allergens? What does this mean for a company such as Heartland?
JK: I think the one thing in the sweetener space is there’s been lots of activity by the FDA over the course of
the last 20 years in terms of saccharin, in terms of some of the other artificial sweeteners before saccharin. US
and globally, these artificial sweeteners have been highly scrutinised. We’re pretty confident that we’re not
going to see a lot of crazy things happening on the sweetener side. The practice has been highly scrutinised
over the last 20 years, so I don’t see anything weird happening. In the fibre-based additives, for instance, you’ll
have to be more cautious because there’ll be more regulations dealing with fibre claims or any other type of
nutritional claims outside of the artificial sweetener side.
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[00:28:50]
Q: What’s the allure or importance in marketing the Splenda product as an alternative to sugar? What’s your
take on the health halo? Are artificial sweeteners better for us or are we getting less sugar but consuming
something just as bad?
JK: There’s been some reporting from some of these health organisations that the artificial sweeteners are
really not fooling your body. They’re not bad for you but they may not be good for you as well. There’s a debate
whether having too much sugar is good for you or bad for you. I think that we’ve had lots of claims and
counter-claims about how good and how bad some of this stuff is. I think for the most part, in some type of
moderation, you’re not going to run into a health issue. When the rat ingests six to four Diet Cokes a day and
they develop some type of cancer, that makes some headlines but for the most part, especially with the
significant focus on diabetes, that have been diagnosed with diabetes, I think that the artificial sweeteners
really have been a plus. As you see more and more diagnosis of diabetes, these sweeteners are going to
continue to play a larger and larger role in the consumer preferences.
[00:31:11]
Q: What is Heartland’s approach to product marketing, given the wider claims of sugar not necessarily being
unhealthy? What does Heartland try to convey to consumers when selling its products? Why should
consumers buy Splenda over other natural sugars?
JK: I think the marketing for this product is interesting in that you’re not marketing a lot in the health sector.
What you’re marketing is you’re marketing alternatives. You’re not running around saying, “Sugar is bad.”
(Audio distorts 32.35-32.41), “Hey, we’re offering you options. You have an option of an erythritol-based
Splenda, you have an option of a Stevia-based product.” Your marketing is careful to avoid, “We are better
than something else.” The marketing is saying, “Hey, we are an option to something else. If you’re diabetic
especially, this is definitely a better alternative for you,” but they’re not putting sugar down. They’re basically
offering options.
[00:33:32]
Q: What pricing considerations would you highlight? What’s the approximate production or managing cost?
How flexible does Heartland need to be to compete on pricing while maintaining healthy margins and high
volume?
JK: The erythritol is an interesting product. Their supply and demand was (audio distorts 34.25-34.28)
inconsistent all the way up until a couple of years ago with the development of these slow-churned ice creams.
Because of the product characteristics in the frozen dairy business, you hardly ever saw an artificial sweetener
being used, but there really has been a significant hike in erythritol usage, which has driven prices of erythritol
up. Erythritol has been going up in price. Stevia is a more interesting product. It is almost exclusively
manufactured and grown… the Stevia plant is grown in China, and so that is really a crop-based plant. It can
be grown from a seed and it can be grown from starter plant. The crops have been pretty wild over the last
couple of years and so Stevia prices have gone up and they’ve gone down and they’re back going up again. The
farmers in China, Stevia grown from cuttings produce (audio cuts out 35.55-35.59) Stevia product and so the
government is trying to encourage farmers to grow the product from a seed cutting, but farmers can also grow
Stevia through a seed. The Stevia is not quite as sweet, so in the processing, you have to further process with
Stevia so the Stevia market has been much, much more volatile than the erythritol market.
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[00:36:44]
Q: How might innovation trend within sweeteners or other enhancers?
JK: We’ll jump in from the sweetener side. Really, Stevia has been a growing market. We’ve also seen this
(inaudible 37.18)-based sweetener as well. That’s still pretty small but that seems to be an innovation point.
Then bulk sizes, both in granular and powder form, those are definitely gaining some share in the innovation
front. From a water enhancer front, we’re seeing a lot of innovation. A lot more seems to be on the powder
side, which is something Heartland doesn’t participate in. We’re seeing a lot of hydration innovation in the
stick form in this market, from a liquid and water enhancer side which Heartland does participate in, private
label is still very strong and we’re also seeing some more exotic flavours, so, flavour innovation. There have
been some larger sizes, so you’ve gone from a 10 or 15 serving size to more of a family size. You’re seeing a
larger innovation in terms of upsizing the product on the liquid side, so that seems to be where we’re seeing
a… hydration is a pretty big innovation on the powder side.
[00:39:04]
Q: What is Heartland’s positioning in the liquid portfolio, whether RTD [ready-to-drink] beverages or coffee?
What weaknesses or strengths would you note across those respective categories?
JK: They have a strong position in private label, in the liquid water enhancer side. They have a good global
presence in that. They compete one-on-one with Kraft in the Mio line, in the Crystal Light line, so Kraft is a
strong competitor in that space. Heartland does not really have a branded product. They do (audio distorts
40.06) labels, the liquid water enhancer, and they have a strong position there. Between them and Kraft, both
companies have a strong technological advantage in terms of the cap and the valve on those products. That
really prevents a lot of competitors from entering the liquid water enhancer space. The one thing you don’t
want to have is you don’t want to have a leaking cap (audio cuts out 40.45-40.49) concentrated colour and
concentrated flavour to contaminate your palettes and contaminate your finished goods. Understanding the
package is a technological advantage in the liquid space.
[00:41:12]
Q: How do you think RTD beverages and coffee fit within Heartland’s overall strategy? Do these lines
represent a significant percentage of Heartland’s sales?
JK: In the coffee segment, the premium cold-brewed coffee segment is growing pretty rapidly. That segment
seems to be taking off and has some strong presence in the refrigerated sector and even in the shelf-stable
sector. We’ve seen everything from plain refrigerated coffees, cold-brewed coffees to frappuccinos and other
coffee-type (audio distorts 42.23). That market is increasing rapidly. Some technological advances in that,
initially with the Pepsi Starbucks frappuccinos that were in glass packages. Those packages were filled and
retorted, and then you’ve gone from that to some product in cans, and then you’ve gone from product in cans
to aseptically packed product in multi-layer plastic bottles. That multi-layer plastic bottle business is very
strong and has got some significant advantages over the glass in that it’s less costly to produce and process,
and you don’t get the breakage that you do in the glass containers. Heartland, because they have aseptic
production for their adult nutritional beverages, they are able to take that type of processing skill and use that
for aseptic beverages outside of the adult nutritional.
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[00:44:01]
Q: How much control does Heartland have over supply chain disruptions? Which materials are most costly to
consistently acquire and procure?
JK: Since November, December, it’s been not a great year for purchasing any type of packaging material, be it
resin-based material or glass-based material or paper-based material. There’s been a significant increase in
cost for all these materials, and even the corrugated boxes that you pack the product in have gone up three
times in the last nine months, and there’ll be a fourth increase, so, you’re talking about possibly a 35-40%
increase in corrugated boxes, price increase. Heartland is not advantaged or disadvantaged vs Kraft or vs
Heinz or General Mills. They all have the same issues in regards to the packaging raw material increases.
[00:45:46]
Q: What might be weaknesses in Heartland’s overall market share in sweeteners and other categories or the
business overall? What’s the biggest risk to losing market share over the next few years?
JK: They have quite a few interesting capabilities in terms of liquid products, so coffee, ready-to-drink tea,
coffee creamers, and they have a liquid K-Cup line as well and a liquid creamer line, so, they have some very,
very unique capabilities. I would say the water enhancer business, if we continue to see innovation on the
powder and the dry side, they do not have capabilities in the stick pack version of liquid water enhancers. That
could be a blind spot for them, but they have very good capabilities. For coffee, which is a growing segment,
they have aseptic ready-to-drink capabilities, they have bag and box capabilities for food service application
and then they have hot fill capabilities for 32oz or for 64oz and 128oz products. They have very, very good
capabilities. I think the only blind spot is water enhancer in a stick pack.
[00:48:02]
Q: How would you assess the importance of Heartland’s scale or lack of? The company seems to be playing in
a rather niche market with high market share. Could it be bigger?
JK: If you look at their competition, they’re competing against Kraft in the liquid water enhancer space. In the
coffee space, there are lots of small players in that space, so not major. They also compete against Dyla, which
is a Stur, on the dry side. Stur also owns Forto, which is in the liquid coffee space as well. In the aseptic adult
nutritional space, they really are number three or number four, behind Nestlé and Abbott. I would say that the
competition is all 800-pound gorillas in that space, for the most part. In the coffee, that’s more niche, so not
quite as ugly as competitors. I think the good news is they’re privately held and they’re very quiet, so they’re
under most people’s radar. The Nestlés and the Krafts of the world don’t try to squash them too much.
[00:50:16]
Q: What consumer trends and preferences would you highlight around sweeteners? What are the pace levels
across the different sweeteners? What are consumers receptive to?
JK: I think what we’re seeing is, some of the consumers, the sweetener usage, the equivalent, so your one
packet of, say, Splenda is supposed to equal two teaspoons of sugar. What we have seen here is that the
consumer likes their product a little bit sweeter. Sweetness levels have been going up over a number of years,
so a standard consumer who was using one packet of Splenda could now be using two packets in their coffee.
We’re starting to see that, a desensitisation of sweetness level in the consumer, so there’s a push to add more
sweetness. We are seeing that as a trend.
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For most part, the consumer’s preference on the packet level has almost been defined by the taste and
aftertaste. Some consumers still prefer the Sweet’n Low. Some consumers prefer the Sweet’n Low for their tea
and the Splenda for their coffee. It’s really the colour coding and consumer preferences that you grew up with
in terms of what your taste is, in terms of Sweet’n Low vs Equal vs Splenda.
[00:53:11]
Q: Splenda is a renowned brand which consumers are very familiar with. What is Heartland’s ability to
increase pricing before consumers would consider a private label product or lower quality tier alternative?
JK: The interesting thing is, when you have a dominant position in a branded product and you also have a
dominant position in private label, you’re really able to leverage those two. If you start to see that you’re taking
pricing levels up in terms of the Splenda product and you’re starting to see market share erosion and that
market share erosion is going into private label, you have the ability to counter-balance that market share
erosion with potentially pricing on private label to offset some of that pricing on the branded.
[00:54:50]
Q: What is your 3-5-year outlook for sweeteners and some of Heartland’s categories? Are there any notable
consumer preferences? Where is the industry headed?
JK: Heartland’s strategy has been building a business around the coffee cup, as they say. They’re in the
creamer side of the business, they’re in the sweetener side, they’re in the coffee side and they’ve got that ready-
to-drink tea business. I think that what you’re looking at in terms of trend is, does this gourmet coffee, does
this cold-brewed coffee, does that product category have some legs to it? Is there the ability to expand that
business into more fraps, more ready-to-drink cold brewed coffee, the liquid K-Cup line? Is there an ability to
grow that business? Is there an ability to expand that? That’s a very unique technology that currently nobody
in the marketplace has, liquid K-Cup, and can you expand that technology into other areas as well?
[00:56:45]
NH: We’re just about out of time. We’ll end it there, but let me close by saying thank you, John, for your
input. It was a really interesting Interview, and also thank you, clients, for joining Third Bridge Forum’s
Interview today. Goodbye.
Transcription ends at 00:56:59 of the recorded material
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