BEAR rebrands to lead healthier snacking shift

BEAR, the UK’s leading brand in kids’ fruit snacking, has announced a comprehensive portfolio redesign that bridges the gap between playful engagement and environmental responsibility.

By stripping away 141 tonnes of excess packaging while modernising its brand assets, BEAR is putting healthier snacking front centre of communications through high-impact visuals and lean, sustainable supply chains to maintain dominance in 2.2 million households.

The relaunch encompasses a refreshed visual identity across the entire BEAR portfolio, featuring a modernised logo, an evolved mascot, and vibrant fruit imagery.

Key to the “play” element of the brand is the introduction of a new 60-card, sports-themed collectible series. Crucially, the physical packaging itself has been optimised, with significant reductions in film and multipack box dimensions.

Worth over £44 million, BEAR currently sits in one in four families with children aged 5–10. However, the kids’ fruit snacking fixture has become increasingly crowded. This redesign responds to two critical market pressures: the need for simplified shopper navigation (helping parents identify “no added sugar” options instantly) and the urgent requirement for brands to meet sustainability targets without compromising product protection or on-shelf appeal.

While the award-winning 100% fruit recipes remain unchanged, the packaging architecture has been re-engineered for efficiency, encompassing:

• Nutritional clarity: clearer on-pack messaging highlights the “100% fruit” and “no added sugar” credentials to boost parental confidence.
• The sustainability step-change: by reducing film and cardboard usage, the brand will remove 141 tonnes of packaging annually.
• Flavour cues: new, high-definition real fruit imagery has been added to increase appetite appeal for cubs (young consumers).

The strategy is designed to retain its core demographic of families with young children while expanding its appeal to older cubs.

The marketing strategy is digitally-led, targeting parents via Meta, YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Disney+, supported by physical in-store activations during high-footfall periods like Back to School and Halloween.

The new packaging began rolling out across all retail channels in April 2026. For retailers, the thinner, more efficient packaging provides a direct commercial benefit: it frees up shelf space, allowing stores to stock more units of best-sellers within the same footprint, thereby increasing potential sales density.

Marketing manager Steph Armstrong notes that this relaunch is the final step in uniting BEAR’s kids’ and adult fruit snacking under a single cohesive identity. The ambition is to create a virtuous circle of purchase — using the collectible cards to drive repeat buys and the improved sustainability credentials to build long-term brand equity with eco-conscious parents.