Man Kosher Brands Hope To Be The Next Sabra

Bentonville, AZ – Sabra Hummus is available at most supermarkets but also at airports, train stations and even stadiums. Many other brands that initially made a foray into kosher have managed to go mainstream. The kosher industry looks at Sabra which is now owned partially by PepsiCo as the ideal model of a brand that had its roots on the kosher market and is now national. The news that Osem’s Bamba will be sold at nearly 800 Walmart stores is an example of an attempt by a clearly ethnic, in this case Israeli brand, to penetrate the general market. It can be the difference between sales in the millions to what could be in the hundreds of millions. In fact, the Osem group recently invested more than $55 million to expand its 172,000-square-foot facility that will employ about 150 workers. It is a top selling snack in Israel which has also done well in kosher sets throughout the world. Utilizing the extensive knowledge of Nestle, which partially owns Osem, the Israeli company is hoping that Nestle does for its Bamba brand what PepsiCo did for Sabra, taking the brand from an estimated $40 million in sales to more than 10 times that. Kosher food industry sources say that many small regional manufacturers in snack foods and even sauces have slowly moved into the mainstream. The opportunities for some have been forays into stores like Whole Foods, Costco, Trader Joe’s and Walmart. Osem is hoping that American kids take to Bamba the way Israelis and kosher kids have.

From Kosher Today