SMU School of Information Systems alumnus and Amazin' Graze's director Hayden Leow was featured in an article where he spoke about the key challenge of getting more awareness in the snacks market.
The passion for all things Singaporean has sparked a new trend in the snacks industry, with items such as a coconut curry lime-infused nut mix and sesame and onion-flavoured shortbread cookies. At least five home-grown snack companies have popped up over the past 11/2 years, concocting creative local flavours for nuts, granola, potato chips and cookies.
Even health snacks now come in local flavours. Amazin' Graze, which has a four-month-old kiosk in Raffles City Shopping Centre, sells about 20 types of granola, nut mixes, nut butters, chia seeds and flax seeds. It has another retail shop in Kuala Lumpur and an online presence in Hong Kong and Dubai. About half its products come in Asian flavours. For example, Coconut Kaya Granola, which has baked rolled oats and nuts coated in kaya made with organic molasses, was launched last month. Popular nut blends come in flavours such as coconut curry lime and tom yam kaffir lime. Mr Leow says sales have grown by 10 to 15 per cent month on month, with about 5,000 packs of granola and nuts sold in Singapore monthly. Its products will be stocked in major supermarkets here in November. Last month, it received $800,000 in funding from a Singapore-based private investor, which will allow it to move to a bigger central kitchen in Kuala Lumpur and boost production by up to tenfold. Getting more awareness in the snacks market is a key challenge,
"Imported health food from Western countries tends to be bland and unexciting. Snacks in familiar flavours resonate better with Singaporeans and help to break down the barrier to trying health food, which has a niche appeal, says Mr Leow.