Come July, visitors to Las Vegas can add one more stop to their list of must-sees: a Jack Link’s Wild Side store filled with all the jerky Sin City can buy.
It’s the second location, a store-within-a-store, that Jack Link’s has opened. The company’s first Wild Side store, an 800-square-foot jerky emporium, opened in its Minneapolis home market in November 2017.
Not only do the stores offer the chance to reach and engage with shoppers, in Minneapolis it’s also a place to test new products and gather consumer feedback quickly.
Read: Wendy’s edgy Twitter feed strikes the right note in the age of Trump
Meat snacks are a $2.8 billion category, according to the most recent Nielsen data available, with jerky experiencing 7% growth for the year ending Feb. 25, 2017.
Nearly two-thirds of consumers (60%) told NPD Group that they want to get more protein in their diets.
TD Dixon, Jack Link’s chief marketing officer, says the “protein craze” is what’s driving the growing popularity of meat snacks. There are also other benefits, like the grab-and-go convenience. Most of Jack Link’s jerky options—there are 300 different protein snacks across a number of brands—are less than 80 calories per serving and have less than two grams of sugar.
Jerky fans tend to skew younger, according to Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst at NPD Group, with teens, and millennials in their 20s and early 30s developing a taste for meat snacks.
“A new generation is coming to the product even though it has been around for a while,” Seifer said.
Also: Does cheap food at Walmart really help families?
The jerky trend will be a long-lasting one, he said.
“Millennials have started feeding it to their children, so it feels like a sustained effort, not just a fad,” he said.
Jack Link’s Dixon breaks down the consumer demographics into three categories: “hooks and bullets,” or fishermen and hunters, who are the “typical” fans; “flavor foodies” who are looking for exotic tastes across snacks, including chips and popcorn; and a newer group, “natural nurturers,” who are looking for qualities like antibiotic-free ingredients in the foods they eat. The latter is a new group that Jack Link’s is targeting with the Lorissa’s Kitchen brand.
Jack Link’s is facing an increasingly competitive market, with brands like Caveman jerky offering options that are gluten-free, and The Hershey Co.’s HSY, -0.89% Krave brand all challenging it for market share.
Jerky companies are also doing battle with consumer habits, which have to change in order to include meat snacks if their diets didn’t incorporate them before.
Don’t miss: Peak pucker? KFC’s pickle fried chicken joins Sonic’s pickle juice slush in this menu trend
“Eating is a habit and we’re slow to change,” said NPD’s Seifer. “When you’re planning to get new consumers, it has to be a sustained effort. You might fail, but you have to keep going at it.”
Jack Link’s is a privately held company.
The Invesco Dynamic Food and Beverage ETF PBJ, -1.14% is up 5.6% for the last year while the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.31% has rallied 11.3% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.15% is up 12.4% for the period.
