Bega Cheese launches new all natural Aussie peanut butter

BEGA Cheese Limited is expanding its portfolio in the peanut butter market.

BEGA Cheese Limited is expanding its portfolio in the peanut butter market.

The company is launching its new peanut butter brand — Bega Simply Nuts — today, in addition to its existing peanut butter spreads.

Bega Foods executive general manager Adam McNamara said the new brand would fill a gap in their portfolio in the natural space.

“This plays to all the consumers needs around health and wellness, it is all 100 per cent natural, made with Australian peanuts and it’s Aussie made and owned, so it really sets us apart from our competitors,” Mr McNamara said.

New market: The new Bega Simply Nuts peanut butter is made from 100 per cent Australian peanuts.

Bega Simply Nuts is the first brand to be launched by Bega Cheese since its $11.9 million acquisition of the Peanut Company of Australia, which was finalised in January last year.

“Bega has a rich history linking back to the farm … but one thing that attracted us with the PCA acquisition was the link back to the farm and the great opportunity it provided to vertically integrate,” Mr McNamara said.

The peanuts used in the new peanut butter are grown by farmers around Kingaroy and on the Atherton Tablelands in Queensland.

Mr McNamara said they were trying to strengthen the viability of the peanut industry, which had been a “fragile primary industry”.

“We are very committed to growing the crop.”

Bega Simply Nuts is made from 100 per cent Australian peanuts and “a pinch of sea salt” and will be sold at all major supermarkets in a 325 gram glass jar to encourage re-use or recycling.

The new spread will sit alongside Bega’s existing peanut butter, which was rebadged from the Kraft brand after Bega’s $460 million acquisition of Mondelez Australia in 2017.

“We are targeting different consumers, those looking for an all natural peanut butter and the glass jar puts it at a more premium position.”

Mr McNamara said the company was the “market leader in spread with our Vegemite brand and existing peanut butter range and this is an extension of that”.

Meanwhile, the legal battle over the intellectual property rights of peanut butter between Kraft, now owned by Heinz, and Bega Cheese, is ongoing.

Mr McNamara said the case was still “before the courts” and could not comment further.

According to Mr McNamara Kraft peanut butter is still available in Australia but not in the major — Coles and Woolworths’ — supermarkets.

“Our peanut butter continues to perform strongly in the market and we are confident of our position,” he said.

MORE

BEGA TO SHELL OUT $12M FOR PEANUT GROWER

BEGA CHEESE NUTS ABOUT THE SPREAD