Post Holdings aims to bring Honey Bunches of Oats beyond the cereal aisle

Food giant Post Holdings is aggressively looking for opportunities to bring its popular Honey Bunches of Oats beyond the cereal aisle.

The St. Louis-based company hired brand licensing firm Brandgenuity to explore expanding the 35-year-old breakfast staple into snack bars, baked goods (breads, muffins, cookies), on-the-go snacks, frozen and shelf-stable breakfast items, and ice cream, among other categories.

“What a perfect time to be extending this brand — oats and oat-based products are in high demand, and growing millennial families love this brand,” Leah Broeders, head of licensing at Post’s Post Consumer Brands division, said in a statement.

Post took its first major step last year to expand the reach of Honey Bunches of Oats with the launch of granola crisps, a cracker-like offering aimed at the on-the-go snacking consumer.

In bringing Honey Bunches of Oats into new aisles of the grocery store, Post will be able to tap into the invaluable recognition that the offering has with consumers. Honey Bunches of Oats has brand awareness topping 93%, Post said, and roughly one in five households has a box in their pantry.

The company, which also owns Malt-O-Meal and Peter Pan peanut butter, said Honey Bunches of Oats is already used outside of the breakfast occasion as a snack, a topper and in baking — creating several avenues in which Post could extend the brand.

Similar to other food manufacturers, Post has been working to bring products in its portfolio into new areas. Last August, Post announced it was bringing its Pebbles cereal into the frozen aisle for the first time with waffles. And recently it brought its Bob Evans sides platform deeper into refrigerated vegetables with carrots, green beans and corn.

Once an afterthought for many multi-billion-dollar food and beverage manufacturers, brand licensing deals are rapidly evolving into a lucrative source of revenue for CPGs aiming to grow their business, build equity and maintain or expand a product’s relevancy in an industry beset by mounting competition and changing consumer tastes.

For packaged food companies, taking existing brands that are already well-known into new categories can be lucrative and strategic. The business not only generates additional sales through the new product offering but it often draws additional attention to the core product, which in turn can see an uptick in consumer purchases. 

Research conducted for Hershey by Numerator in 2019 found when consumers purchased one of the confection and snacking company’s licensed brands like Reese’s Puffed Cereal or a Hershey baking mix — both collaborations with General Mills — shoppers were on average four times more likely to also have purchased a Reese’s or Hershey’s confectionary item during the same shopping trip.