Page 426 - Operations Strategy

caSe StuDy
6 Developing ‘Savory roSti-criSpS’

at DreDDo Dan’s

nigel Slack

‘Most people see the snack market as dynamic and innovative, but actually it is sur-
prisingly conservative. Most of what passes for innovation is, in fact, tinkering with
our marketing approach, things like special offers, promotion tie-ins, and so on. We
occasionally put new packs round our existing products and even more occasionally we
introduce new flavours in existing ranges. Rarely though does anyone in this industry
introduce something radically different. That is why ‘Project Orlando’ is both exciting
and scary.’
Monica Allen, the technical vice-president of PJT’s snack division, was commenting
on a new product to be marketed under PJT’s best-known brand ‘Dreddo Dan’s Surfer
Snacks’. The Dreddo Dan’s brand made use of surfing and outdoor ‘action oriented
youth’ imagery, but in fact was aimed at a slightly older generation who, although
aspiring to such a lifestyle, had more discretionary spend for the premium snacks in
which the brand specialised. Current products marketed under the brand included
both fried and baked snacks in a range of exotic flavours. The project, internally known
as Project Orlando, was a baked product that had been ‘in development’ for almost
three years but had hitherto been seen very much as a long-term development, with
no guarantee of it ever making it through to market launch. PJT had several of these
long-term projects running at any time. They were allocated a development budget,
but usually no dedicated resources were associated with the project. Less than half of
these long-term projects ever even reached the stage of being test marketed. Around
20 per cent never got past the concept stage, and less than 20 per cent went into pro-
duction. However, the company viewed the development effort put into these ‘failed’
products as being worthwhile because it often led to ‘spin-off’ developments and ideas
that could be used elsewhere. Up to this point ‘Orlando’ had been seen as unlikely to
reach the test marketing stage, but that had now changed dramatically.
‘Orlando’ was a concept for a range of snack foods, described within the company
as ‘savory potato cookies’. Essentially, they were one and a half-inch discs of crisp,
fried potato with a soft dairy cheese-like filling. The idea of incorporating dairy fill-
ings in snacks had been discussed within the industry for some time, but the problems
of manufacturing such a product were formidable. Keeping the product crisp on the
outside yet soft in the middle, while at the same time ensuring microbiological safety,
would not be easy. Moreover, such a product would have to be capable of being stored
at ambient temperatures, maintain its physical robustness and have a shelf life of at
least three months.
Bringing Orlando products to market involved overcoming three types of technical
problems. First, the formulation and ingredient mix for the product had to maintain
the required texture yet be capable of being baked on the company’s existing baking
lines. The risk of developing an entirely new production technology for the offering

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