SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 20, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diamond Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq:DMND), announced today an integrated promotion across its snack portfolio called Snack Bowl XLV. Consumers will submit applications on-line and encourage their friends to vote for them utilizing unique tools such as a Facebook video application. The entrant receiving the most votes will win a trip to the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement ceremony and be inducted into the Hall of Fame. This is the first promotion leveraging Diamond Foods' expanded snack portfolio: Emerald snack nuts, Pop Secret popcorn and the recently acquired Kettle Brand chips. The promotion will be supported with a national FSI and in-store merchandising vehicles as well as social media and a dedicated micro-site.
This innovative promotion reflects Diamond's continued commitment to invest in its brands, which is critical in the Company's strategy to achieve sustained growth and market share gains. In the most recent four-week period ended September 4th, Emerald sales grew over 35 percent compared to the prior year period, causing market share to climb 230 basis points to reach 10.8 percent, a new record for the brand. Kettle Brand sales grew over 18% compared to the prior year period, achieving a new record 3.6% share of the overall potato chip category. Pop Secret sales were up about 2% causing market share to grow by 230 basis points. The Diamond of California culinary nut brand gained 100 basis points in share and maintains a 28% share, which is 10 times higher than the next largest branded competitor.
"Our investments in product quality, brand support, distribution and retail merchandising are showing results across all of our brands," said Andrew Burke, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer of Diamond Foods. "We remain focused on delivering innovation that is relevant to today's consumer and working with our retail partners to effectively promote and distribute our products to help grow category sales dollars."
The Snack Bowl XLV promotion is expected to begin January 3rd and voting will close at the start of the Super Bowl with a winner announced in March.
All share data is from Nielsen US Food stores for the 4 week period ending September 4, 2010.
About Diamond
Diamond Foods is a high-growth innovative packaged food company focused on building, acquiring and energizing brands including Kettle® Chips, Emerald ® snack nuts, Pop Secret ® popcorn, and Diamond of California ® culinary and snack nuts. The Company's products are distributed in a wide range of stores where snacks and culinary nuts are sold.
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Note regarding forward-looking statements: This release contains forward-looking statements as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements necessarily depend on assumptions that may be incorrect and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ materially from projections made in this release. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ from our expectations include risks of loss of key customers and an increase in competition. A more extensive list of factors that could materially affect our results can be found in Diamond's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They are available publicly and on request from Diamond's Investor Relations Department.
CONTACT: Diamond Foods, Inc. Investors: Bob Philipps, VP, Treasury & Investor Relations 415-445-7426 bphilipps@diamondfoods.com Edelman Media: Michael Altfest, Account Supervisor 415-486-3244 Michael.altfest@edelman.com
