Sainhall (Sainhall Nutrithealth) is better known as a health supplements firm in Singapore, owner of the vitamins.sg platform, exclusive distributor of the Nutrex brand and also a major distributor of brands such as Blackmores and Holistic Way in addition to manufacturing its own brand of supplements.
The firm has recently ventured out of the supplements space into healthy snacking with its DeeFruit fruit snacks, highlighting the current environment as ideal for this venture.
“Sainhall actually launched a healthy fruit snack brand back in 1994 called McDee, but back then it was less of a focus and we were concentrating our manpower on the health supplements area,” Sainhall Commercial Director Si Min Yeap told FoodNavigator-Asia.
“Today, we are seeing a very strong trend and rise in demand for healthy snacks so have decided to revisit this snacking portfolio with DeeFruit, which is essentially McDee 2.0 – the recipe has also been revamped to improve nutritional and mouthfeel attributes, such as including rice crispies to increase that snackish feel.
“Every 22g sachet of DeeFruit snacks is the nutritional equivalent of an apple in terms of fibre, vitamins and so on, and the entire range is low-calorie (75 kcal or less) and has no added sugar or salt.”
The range is targeted at three major consumer groups, namely children, snacking adults and weight watchers.
“In terms of appealing to children, these would work very well as a recess food due to their snacking format – it would be especially helpful for mothers who try to give their kids whole fruits in their recess lunchboxes but find that these are brought home untouched,” Yeap added.
“This is also good as a general healthy snack due to not only the nutrition aspect but also the convenience one – every sachet can easily be popped into a bag and eaten on-the-go anywhere even during occasions when it can be hard to find healthy food items, and certainly has a longer shelf-life than a whole fresh fruit.
“We have also had positive feedback from consumers that find this a good alternative to snacks with harder textures such as granola bars or nuts, especially those with dental crowns that may have trouble chewing too many of these harder products or sometimes even risk damaging the crowns and then having to shell out a great deal of money to pay for repairs.
“As for the weight watchers, DeeFruit also appeals to this group due to its low calorie count per sachet alongside the high dietary fibre content; plus the natural fruit composition also helps to add to macro-nutrient intake in a good way as there is more than 4g of fruit concentrated into every 1g of DeeFruit.”
DeeFruit has just been officially launched in Singapore in April 2024, and is available via both online and offline platforms, including its own vitamin.sg, Lazada, Shopee and The Cocoa Trees.
Expansion plans
Although Deefruit has currently only been launched in Singapore, Sainhall believes that there is immense marketing potential for this range in other markets as well given the strength of the healthy snacking trend.
“There are plans for export as we believe this is a good product that will appeal to consumers in many markets, and we also hope to reach a mass audience so definitely are looking to enter mainstream retail as well,” she said.
“The potential is very strong because of the healthy snacking trend, which in turn is being driven strongly by the rise of consumer health consciousness in this region, particularly with the increased popularity of health figures [and influencers].
“Consumers today are much more aware of the importance of preventative health care and not waiting until already being sick before taking steps to address health issues – this has definitely influenced the entire healthier eating space.
“So far based on the launch results we have seen, these snacks have been a win with all ages as long as people get to actually try them first – there has been a nine out of 10 conversion rate from sampling to purchase.”
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