US pasta maker Monterey Gourmet Foods has announced that its Whole Wheat Pasta line, introduced late last year, is proving to be a success.
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The sales volume of the new line has grown significantly throughout the year and is expected to represent 15% of Monterey Gourmet Foods’ total pasta sales in the third quarter after less than a year on the market. The whole-wheat line has been key to the company increasing its overall Monterey Pasta brand business above prior year levels in the third quarter.
The company said this was a welcome development after two years of sagging pasta sales attributed to the low-carb diet trend. In addition to improved sales of the Monterey Pasta brand, the company is also seeing strong contribution from its acquisitions, Sonoma Cheese Company and Casual Gourmet Foods, CIBO Naturals and Emerald Valley Organics.
“We are very excited to see this innovation in the fresh pasta category win such quick acceptance by our customers and consumers. As a smaller, more responsive company, we can be first in our class to capture new food trends. In the case of whole-wheat pasta, we saw early last year that this was an emerging opportunity due to consumers’ shift to more sensible diet programmes such as the South Beach Diet and Weight Watchers that include consumption of ‘good carbs’ such as whole grains and fruits,” said Monterey’s CEO, Jim Williams.
