Best-known for its Flats range, Sydney snack company and Naturally Good exhibitor Fine Fettle is ready to reveal expansion plans for 2022 and beyond.

Origin story: After searching unsuccessfully for genuinely healthy snacks that also tasted great, newly converted vegetarian Petrina Wisniewski began making them herself. She discovered the dehydration process and soon developed Flats: vibrant vegetable crackers without endless additives. Within months of founding Fine Fettle in 2009, Wisniewski struck up an in-flight-snack deal with Qantas.

Waste not, want not: Over the years, Fine Fettle has refined its purpose. The company is now focusing on excess fruit and veg and “wasted” produce: perfectly delicious ingredients that often go unsold due to minor aesthetic imperfections. “We’re taking product that’s overly abundant or maybe a bit wonky or ugly and turning it into snacks that people really love,” says Wisniewski.

Flights of fancy: The Qantas relationship has allowed Fine Fettle to grow brand awareness while receiving a stable revenue stream. And recent events have served to strengthen ties. “Since the pandemic, airlines have been reassessing their use of food items that might only have a couple of weeks’ shelf life,” Wisniewski says. “Dehydrated products keep for much longer, which has been very useful while travel has been so uncertain.”

New horizons: “We started in snacks, and that’s our core, but over the past three or four years we’ve diversified significantly with cereals, chocolate and instant meals,” Wisniewski notes. “One of the reasons we’re looking forward to exhibiting this year is because we have so much to talk about.” The vegetarian ready meals, in particular, could be a game-changer for Fine Fettle: they’re notably free of flavourings and additives and address the “eat less meat” trend that is growing here and overseas.

Bottom line: Wisniewski says Fine Fettle’s consistent, uncomplicated consumer proposition has been central to the brand’s growth in recent years. “All our products are full of flavour and free of nasties,” she notes. “We’re gluten-free and don’t refine our ingredients.” She says customers now trust Fine Fettle products to tick all these boxes. “Snacking is still a really important space for us, but we continue to see opportunities beyond that, using the same principles we first developed.” And there’s more to come.

Fine Fettle exhibited at Naturally Good 2022 – you can discover more of their products and innovations at their exhibitor directory listing. Subscribe for regular updates and stay up-to-date with the industry.