Nightfood Tackling America's $50 Billion Night Snack Problem

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The following post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga.

Nighttime snacking in the United States has exploded in recent years, coinciding with the rise of social media and video streaming. The average American now snacks 2.6 times per day according to IRI data. Nearly half of adults snack more than 3 times per day, with almost half of all snacking taking place between dinner and bed.

And those nighttime snacks tend to be the least healthy food choices we make all day. In fact, MassiveHealth data shows that the “healthiness” of our food choices decreases throughout the day. The later it gets, the less healthy we eat. That’s why the most popular night snacks are not carrot sticks, but rather ice cream, cookies, chips and candy.

Over 80% of Americans snack regularly at night. Studies confirm that poor snack choices before bed can impair sleep due to excess fat and sugar. Moreover, a poll study shows that 54% of U.S. consumers who snack at night often feel guilty about their nighttime snack choices.

Making Peace with Nighttime Snacking

Studies show that the key driving force behind night snacking is our biological hard-wiring. Late-day cravings for excess calories are believed to harken back to our hunter-gatherer days when we didn’t know if there would be enough food for tomorrow.

To make matters worse, our willpower tends to weaken as the day progresses. The combination of hard-wired biological cravings and diminished willpower creates the perfect storm, where people reach for the least healthy choices as bedtime approaches. 

You can easily find food bloggers and fitness influencers suggesting alternative snacks. But let’s face it — nuts, berries and avocado toast don’t satisfy your prehistoric cravings. You’re wired to go for the sweetest choices: cookies and ice cream.

Is there any way to satisfy those biological cravings without the need to repent for your sins later?

Nightfood Holdings NGTF is making that happen for guilt-ridden consumers.

The award-winning ice cream company recognizes that our night snack problem isn’t going to solve itself. The solution? Snacks uniquely formulated by sleep experts and nutritionists specifically for nighttime cravings that provide the nutritional foundation for better sleep quality.

In recent years, the snack industry has seen billions of dollars of consumption shift to “better-for-you” snack brands. Despite the massive consumer spend on night snacks and consumers’ growing dissatisfaction with their sleep quality, no leading snack brand has ever been formulated for better sleep.

Massive Market Potential

In 2020, America generated the largest single country revenue in the snack food market — amounting to over $109 billion. With 80% of Americans snacking regularly at night and an estimated 700 million nighttime snack occasions weekly, the annual spend on night snacks amounts to over $50 billion.

These facts uniquely position Nightfood as the only player addressing America’s $50 billion nighttime snacking problem.

Currently, Nightfood’s ice cream is in freezers at almost 2,000 supermarkets in the U.S., including divisions of Walmart WMT, Kroger KR and Albertsons ACI.

The company is also targeting the American hotel market. An estimated 20,000 hotels sell ice cream in their lobby stores. Earlier this year, Nightfood initiated a retail pilot test with a leading global hotel brand. Management has stated that a successful test would be expected to result in a rapid rollout into thousands of hotels across the country.

What’s interesting about Nightfood’s position is that it is pioneering a new food category altogether — night snacks. With Pepsi PEP, Nestle NSRGY and Unilever UL validating this important consumer problem, one of the big fish could acquire Nightfood as a possible key driver for future growth.

Nightfood has hinted at expansion into additional snack formats. For now, it’s leading the way with its sleep-friendly ice cream.

With an increasing number of consumers becoming more conscious of their health and their sleep, combined with the perpetual problem of late-night snacking, Nightfood has a unique value proposition. Pioneering and leading a new category where consumers are already spending over $1 billion every week is a pretty tasty opportunity.

To learn more about Nightfood, visit its website here.

The preceding post was written and/or published as a collaboration between Benzinga’s in-house sponsored content team and a financial partner of Benzinga. Although the piece is not and should not be construed as editorial content, the sponsored content team works to ensure that any and all information contained within is true and accurate to the best of their knowledge and research. This content is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investing advice.