SANITARIUM TAKES BIGGER BITE OF CEREAL MARKET
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 bite-size 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, which was founded by the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Melbourne in 1898, is Australia’s biggest breakfast cereal producer in terms of volume. Weet-Bix is worth about $100 million a year to the company.
It’s not all been smooth sailing for Weet-Bix lately. The company last week dropped former Australian Cricket Team captain Steve Smith as a brand ambassador following his involvement in the South African ball tampering scandal.
“The food industry is a competitive one but we compete through innovation,” Mr Jackson said. “We are committed to manufacturing in Australia and use a lot of Australian ingredients. For example all our wheat is sourced from Australia.”
Sanitarium is the largest food manufacturer in the world owned by the Seventhday Adventist Church, and the twentieth largest food company in Australia. It also makes soy milk, juices, spreads and vegetarian meal ingredients.
Mr Jackson said it was not cheap to launch new products such as Weet-Bix Cholesterol Lowering, adding a change in the Food Standard Code was required to allow the adding of sterol. “This is a world first for the cereal industry.” he said.
IBISWorld warns cereal makers would need to create healthier and more convenient breakfast foods to help offset competition.