Funday Natural Sweets wins Best Food Product of the Year

Funday Natural Sweets has been recognised as a mover and shaker in the ‘better for you sector’ being named Best Food Product of the Year at the Naturally Good Awards.

Melbourne-based Daniel Kitay launched Funday Natural Sweets in 2021 when he was looking for a solution that would enable him to satisfy his sweet tooth while eliminating sugar from his diet.

Since then, their healthier versions of red frogs, vegan gummy bears, and sour peach hearts, have won customers over, and have recently been ranged by Ampol. In fact, by the end of 2022, Funday Natural Sweets is on target to be stocked in more than 3,000 stores across the country, including Woolworths, Chemist Warehouse, and Ampol in Australia and New Zealand.

“This all started because I wanted to eliminate sugar from my own diet but still enjoy my favourite lollies,” says Kitay.

“The team at FUNDAY work tirelessly to create lollies that aren’t just free of ‘nasties’ but have health benefits too. We’re always talking to, and guided by, our customers so we can’t wait to see what the next year brings.”

Kitay says that there has never been a product like this in Australia before, with up to 91 per cent less sugar and full of prebiotic fibre. His hope is to “make a mark in Australia as the leading healthy confectionery brand. That’s really our vision and we’re on our way to getting there.”

Reengaging consumers

Funday Natural Sweets provides a great opportunity for retailers to reengage with consumers who may have left the confectionery category.

“There’s a huge demand for low sugar and sugar free products in Australia and there are a lot of consumers in Australia, who love confectionery, but simply do not buy confectionery because there is too much sugar in it,” says Kitay.

“Our products are very visually appealing, and they stand out significantly. They allow people who have kind of not been engaged in confectionery to start reengaging with the category. What that does is it actually adds incremental sales to that confectionary category in all retailers. And all retailers are looking for incremental growth in their category.

“What we don’t do is we don’t replace one product for another product, which just provides no incremental growth. We’re a brand that’s showing difference in life by providing genuine unique selling points and getting new people into the category – and I think that’s probably the greatest thing that we’re doing for retailers.”