Sanitarium takes bigger bite

Each year Sanitarium’s factory manufactures enough Weet-Bix biscuits to reach London and back. Now the 60-year-old factory at Moorooka is to get busier.

EACH year Sanitarium’s factory manufactures enough Weet-Bix biscuits to reach London and back.

Now the 60-year-old factory at Moorooka is set to get busier as the 119-year-old food manufacturer boosts its iconic Weet-Bix range.

Sanitarium chief executive Kevin Jackson said a cholesterol lowering Weet-Bix, launched last year, is part of the company’s strategy of seeking a greater share of the $1.2 billion breakfast cereal market in Australia. The new product contains plant sterols, which NSW-based Sanitarium claims are clinically proven to reduce LDL, or so-called bad cholesterol.

Mr Jackson said the new product, called Weet-Bix Cholesterol Lowering, was being made in the company’s New South Wales factory.

This meant Brisbane would take on a bigger role in producing other Weet-Bix lines, including the blended and bitesize varieties.

Mr Jackson said that with a turnover of $400 million a year, Sanitarium was holding its own against foreign giants such as Kellogg’s.

Sanitarium is Australia’s biggest breakfast cereal producer in terms of volume. Weet-Bix is worth about $100 million a year to the company.

GOOD START: Sanitarium is seeking a bigger piece of the breakfast cereal market through the launch of new products such as Weet-Bix Cholesterol Lowering.