Classic Australian brand, Patties, is breathing new life into its crowd-pleasing party favourites. To celebrate this, and the fact that the brand turned 51 this month, Patties held a killer party on Sydney Harbour.

The event also marked the Patties brand officially stepping out of party pies and sausage rolls and into a full range of adult-friendly entertaining and bite-sized options for grazing.

Following the event, B&T spoke to Patties GM of marketing and innovation, Anand Surujpal (pictured below), about how the Aussie brand keeps things fresh.

As such a historic brand, how does Patties keep things relevant? And what are the challenges in doing so?

Over the last 12 months, we’ve introduced Patties Foods’ innovation framework, Patties Innovation Ecosystem (fondly known as P.I.E.) – a company-wide initiative on new product and brand development. The P.I.E. ecosystem is made up of five key pillars, which look to drive business-wide innovation; consumer and shopper insights, technology, discipline and process, business culture and senior leadership support.

The objective of P.I.E’s technology pillar is an e-platform that is able to rapidly evolve Patties brands in-line with market needs. This means continually challenging the “frozen food is boring” paradigm to deliver value to frozen pies and sweet categories.

P.I.E aims to bring people from all facets of the organisation together to formulate new and exciting products, while also extracting meaningful consumer insights that motivate change in the FMCG sector.

We have seen successes since using P.I.E. It has been a key contributor in reversing the decline of the frozen savoury category with growth up 4.7 per cent versus a decline of 3.6 per cent in the previous year. In fact, our new vegetarian range of quiches and vegetarian rolls was the first range conceptualised through P.I.E and is now in-store for consumers to enjoy.

What are some food marketing trends you see emerging in 2019?

In 2019, consumers are consistently asking for more entertaining or bite-sized options for grazing and simple new ways to make food look irresistible for guests.

Australians are embracing the notion of easy, yet effortless get-togethers with finger food to match that sentiment.

So, we listened and created more grown-up options, like our three delicious quiche flavours; quiche Lorraine, Spinach & Feta and Caramelised Onion & Cheddar Cheese. We have also included ways you can personalise your products at home. Consumers can now add their own special touch to Patties products by following the simple recipes on the side of the pack.

What’s next for Patties ?

We recently extended Patties food group by launching our first chiller brand – Ruffie Rustic Foods. Now available in Woolworths, this is a new range of quiches and frittatas using wholesome, real ingredients with visible goodness and quality that the consumer can see and taste, including perfectly imperfect crispy burnt edges.

Conceptualised in just six months, Ruffie Rustic Foods aims to diversify Patties’ brand portfolio into the Chiller while acting as a category driver and creating a new benchmark for premiumisation in the supermarket chiller.

What are you excited to achieve in 2019?

Patties finger food products are intuitive to what flavours and ingredients are trendy and important to consumers right now. Plant-based eating is now leading health-based searches for recipes online in Australia.