2023 Category Captain for Alternative Snacks: Old Trapper

Shopping and spending habits dramatically changed in 2022 due to inflation and higher fuel costs, leaving c-store operators searching for ways to continue growth. Old Trapper worked closely with its retail partners to build a collaborative relationship to benefit the entire category.

Old Trapper observed that most meat snack sections are vastly under spaced and by evaluating the current selling sets and assortments, the Category Captain found that meat snacks can realize as much as a 50 percent increase by adding an adjacent section to the current category.

Old Trapper focuses on core SKUs to drive sales and uses an unbiased process that places SKUs with the highest average weekly dollars per store to achieve the highest dollar-grossing meat snack sets in every region. Rather than only promoting items within its offering, Old Trapper takes the best from all brands and creates best-in-class planograms based on sales performance. Core items from all brands contribute 88.44 percent of total category sales, whereas only 11.56 percent come from innovation items.

Understanding who its customers are, with a focus on how to bring new users to the category, is important to increasing basket size. Store-level promotions that offer customers value on their meat snack purchases support trip spend and trial. Old Trapper works with retailers to find other items that customers frequently purchase with meat snacks and bundles them in promotions.

Old Trapper also has found success bringing awareness to the meat snacks category with advertising, in-store media partnerships, and app platforms. Its national ad campaign drives consumer awareness to one of the fastest-growing convenience store categories.