Snak King Corp.’s Whole Earth brand might have been a hit with health food fanatics, but can the City of Industry manufacturer sell its snacks to foodies?

The company hopes a new look, unveiled last week, will help. Take the company’s Really Seedy Multigrain Tortilla Chips: They used to come in a tan bag that highlighted the products health benefits – no trans fat but plenty of Omega-3 fatty acids.

That might have worked in an old-school natural food shop, but not in mainstream grocery stores that increasingly want to attract free-spending customers who want gourmet products, said veteran food industry consultant Marcia Schurer, president of Culinary Connections in Chicago.

“It’s not an upscale look,” Schurer said of the old packaging. “It looks like something from the ’70s.”

But the brand’s new style, which Snak King showed off during a recent natural products expo in Anaheim, uses bolder colors and it highlights gourmet flavors and ingredients rather than health benefits. It’s part of the company’s plan to get its products in more stores.

“With the rebranding, we’d like to have much more market penetration,” said Joe Papiri, Snak King’s vice president of sales and marketing.

He said Whole Earth products are sold mostly at club and warehouse stores but that he hopes to get them into Ralphs, Vons and other major grocers.

The company is introducing a couple of products, but most of the changes are to the packaging.

Meanwhile, over the past year, Snak King has integrated the operations of a Chicago-area snack manufacturer it acquired early last year, doubling the company’s manufacturing and distribution capabilities. During that time, the company also managed to develop new products, releasing a few dozen during the past year.

“We would have done more but we had a lot of our attention focused on our new facility in Illinois,” said Barry Levin, Snak King’s chief executive. Levin and his family are majority owners of the private company.

Since acquiring Freeport, Ill., manufacturer C.J. Vitner Co., Snak King has spent about $20 million on new and upgraded equipment as well as an 80,000-square-foot addition to the Vitner plant. The Freeport facility will continue to make Vitner products but will also make Snak King products for distribution in the East and Midwest.

Foodie snacks

In addition to the Whole Earth line, Snak King makes pork rinds, potato chips, flavored tortilla chips and other salty snacks under a handful of in-house brand names, including Vitner’s, Granny Goose and El Sabroso. It makes similar products under private-label agreements with retailers.

Across its hulking Industry plant and headquarters, the Vitner plant and a Chicago distribution center, Snak King has more than 900 employees, most of them in Industry.

Natural and organic products are a growing part of Snak King’s sales. Levin said his company is the largest organic tortilla chip maker in the country.

But the company’s Whole Earth brand, while sold at Cost Plus, Gelson’s and Costco stores, hasn’t gotten shelf space in most major retailers such as Vons and Ralphs.

The rebranding is both an attempt to reach new customers – younger buyers who want gourmet flavors – and an acknowledgement that people buy snack food because it’s tasty, not because it’s healthy.

“The positioning before was like a functional, good-for-you look,” Papiri said. “Now we’re trying to appeal to a gourmet standpoint. You’re not buying snack food because you want to put something in your body that’s good for you but doesn’t taste good.”

The new Whole Earth logo includes the slogan “A world of flavor.” Instead of information about fiber and trans fat content, product packages now include images of the ingredients used, such as brown flax and chia seeds in the Really Seedy Multigrain Tortilla Chips, and olive oil and sea salt in the Garden Herb and Olive Oil Popcorn.

Food consultant Schurer said the company faces challenges in getting in grocery stores, but the new packaging’s bold colors and focus on gourmet flavors could help.

“To get shelf space away from the major snack people is almost impossible,” she said. “I would say they have a good shot at it. A consumer would look at this and say, ‘Oh, this looks interesting.’”

Schurer, who has not sampled Snak King products, noted that the taste has to live up to expectations – which will be much higher now.

“Definitely my expectations are higher with this packaging,” she said. “But is the packaging a true representation of what’s inside?”