2022 Category Captain for Packaged Sweet Snacks: Hostess Brands

The Hostess Brands category management team captained the annual assortment review process for many large retailers in 2021, focusing on category-centric metrics designed to lift the performance of all brands in sweet baked goods.

The company further supported retailers in the review process by leveraging its planogram-building and maintenance capabilities and software, building more than 190 planograms at 100-plus retailers. The category team provided continued assortment analysis throughout the year to measure and maintain category growth.

Its winning entry cited: 

• Using virtual meeting software to double the number of category reviews compared to prior years between its category management team and retail partners. This analysis included information on what's driving the retailer's category performance at the brand and item levels, what the key opportunities are to improve category performance, and what the threats are that could hinder performance moving forward. 
• Driving overall growth in the packaged bakery category, Hostess Brands was responsible for more than $99 million of growth vs. the prior year, an increase of 19 percent. Already the category share leader going into 2021, it has grown the overall category, which is up 6.6 percent year to date and up an average of 9.7 percent at customers in which Hostess Brands is the category captain. 
• Leading innovative research to better understand the shopping behaviors of convenience store customers and the emotions they associate with the channel. The supplier shared this information with its retail partners so they can better understand who is in their stores.