The Kwekkeboom Oven Products were awarded the Distrifood Golden Wheel of Retail last night. The judges especially praised the market-expanding character of the snacks and the fact that the oven products make frozen snacks accessible to households without requiring deep frying. Kwekkeboom also received the Category wheel for best introduction in the Frozen Snacks product group and the Special Wheel for most important innovation of the year.
Kwekkeboom received the prestigious retail prize from top conductor Jules van Hessen during the award presentation in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. The judges’ explanation for their choice for the Golden Wheel: “For years, people have been searching for a solution. Deep frying is tricky. You need fat, a deep fryer, and you need to heat the fat. In short, it’s quite a hassle. Kwekkeboom introduced a range of oven products, giving households without a fryer the opportunity to enjoy the snacks as well. And it works!”
Just as crispy as snacks from the fryer
Snack manufacturer Royaan introduced the Kwekkeboom Oven Products in 2014. An innovative product technology makes the Kwekkeboom oven snacks just as crispy as fried snacks. This makes all the disadvantages of frying at home a thing of the past, eliminating the need for a fryer to prepare snacks. The new generation of oven snacks is available in the supermarket. The oven range includes croquettes and bitterballen (deep-fried ragout balls) as well as cheese snacks with cheddar, and various chicken snacks.
Bart Bakker, CEO of Royaan: “We are incredibly proud of this award and grateful that our trade partners in retail have rewarded us for the new oven products in this way. It is partly thanks to them that we have doubled our market share in the oven snacks category.” R&D Manager Ton van Ekeren adds: “You can compare this to a chef receiving a Michelin star for his/her restaurant. It’s the highest honor you can get as an R&D manager.”
This year, Distrifood held the Wheel of Retail awards for the 40th consecutive year. This entails the election of the best new product in the Dutch supermarket world. The Distrifood editorial staff collaborates closely with the three major purchase organizations (Albert Heijn, Jumbo Supermarkten, and Superunie) and market research institute Nielsen and Gfk.
