Snack food industry comprises companies that make snack foods such as chips, nuts, popcorn, peanut butter and many other varieties of snacks. In this industry, major products are potato chips, which account for sales up to  25% of the total industry revenue, corn chips, tortilla chips which account for up to 20%, and roasted nuts and seeds which account for up to 20%. Along with this, the other products include are canned nuts, peanut butter, popcorn, hard pretzels, and other chips that are packaged for longer usage and they are equipped with stronger packaging solutions. More popular and preferred are the salty snack foods, which are found in most North American households. According to NPD, statistically, more than half of Americans eat snacks two to three times every day. According to Mintel Consumer Intelligence, among individual products, potato chips are the most popular, then followed by tortilla chips, popcorn, and pretzels.

From the Blog: Global Savory Snacks Market and Top Performing Companies in the UK

The US snack foods manufacturing industry comprises approximately 500 companies which contribute the combined annual revenue of $30 billion. For such a mammoth success, the key growth drivers are expanding convenience store sales, tree nut sales, and spicier offerings. In this industry, cookies and candy are not included as they are covered in separate industry profiles. The overall demand is driven by consumer tastes and health considerations in today's world and the profitability of individual companies depends entirely on efficient operations, effective marketing, and a strong sales force. Typically, large companies have advantages in raw material purchasing, manufacturing efficiencies, distribution, and marketing budgets. Small operations can compete effectively by self-distributing products, utilizing and selling online, or marketing snacks as gift items. Among all countries' revenue share, the US industry is highly concentrated with the top 50 companies accounting for 90% of industry revenue.

2 . Snack and Savory Snack Food Current Trends

Globally, the snack food market is in an expansion mode due to changing eating habits of majority of consumers. In today's general and regular hectic lifestyles have made consumers to reach more for smaller snack-based meals rather than traditional time-consuming lunches and dinners. The snack foods industry is diversifying and innovating to offer healthier snack options in the face of global concerns over the rise in obesity and other health disorders. Worldwide, the snack foods manufacturing industry generates approximately $350 billion in revenue. Asia-pacific, Latin America, Eastern Europe are the fastest-growing snack foods industry, according to Global Industry Analysts. The driving factors for this high growth are the factors fueling the market such as higher income levels, consumer perceptions and demographics.

In this industry, the packaging is a key element as it provides consumers with options such as  bite-sized packs, single-serving packages and resalable bags proving popular. Consumers are increasingly becoming health conscious and companies that manufacture snack foods are offering healthy options such as low calorie, low fat, vitamin fortified, organic and fiber-rich foods.

3 . Major Snack and Savory Snack Food Industry Players

Major companies in the snack food industry include Diamond Foods, Frito-Lay, Mondelez International, Snyder's-Lance, Calbee Foods, Nongshim, Haldiram, Maiyyas, MTR and United Biscuits.