King's Hawaiian is pushing deeper into the branded snack aisle with the nationwide retail rollout of Soft Swirl Cinnamon Bites, a sweet-occasion extension of the Bites platform the 75-year-old family-owned bakery brand launched in 2024 with Soft Pretzel Bites. The new SKU is available now at major grocery retailers across the country, positioned alongside its pretzel counterpart and targeting morning snacking — a daypart the brand had not previously addressed within the Bites format.
The Product & Retail Play
King's Hawaiian is leveraging its equity as the maker of the No. 1 branded roll in the United States to gain planogram space in the snack and bread-adjacent sets. Soft Swirl Cinnamon Bites deliver cinnamon swirl baked into the brand's signature soft, fluffy dough and are merchandised in a tub format — a package structure that signals repeat-purchase snacking rather than meal-occasion bread. Sold at ambient temperature but warmable for a premium eating experience, the item is engineered to drive incremental velocity against the morning snack daypart without cannibalizing the brand's core roll and bun business.
For category managers, the launch represents a second TDP wave for the Bites line. The Soft Pretzel Bites entry in 2024 established a distribution beachhead; the cinnamon variety gives retail buyers a reason to double-face or expand shelf allocation for the sub-brand, particularly in snack aisles where salty-to-sweet adjacencies are increasingly common on planograms. The tub format also lends itself to cross-merchandising on end-caps alongside coffee and morning-routine items.
Campaign & Trade Context
To support the launch, King's Hawaiian activated the "Mmmоments" campaign built around Taylor Hanson and a reworked version of Hanson's 1997 hit "MMMBop," rebranded as "MMMBites." A series of humorous video spots — the first, Mmmоndays, debuted September 7 — anchors the digital and social push. The nostalgia-driven creative is designed to drive consumer pull at shelf, which directly supports retailer sell-through metrics and reduces the pressure on slotting-fee-heavy introductory trade terms.
"As we continue growing our snack portfolio, Soft Swirl Cinnamon Bites are an exciting addition, bringing the King's Hawaiian experience fans know and love to an entirely new sweet occasion — morning snacking," said Raouf Moussa, Chief Marketing Officer at King's Hawaiian. The campaign was developed in partnership with Alison Brod Marketing & Communications and Erich & Kallman.
The sweet snack and bakery-snack segments have seen sustained category interest from both national brands and private label competitors, as retailers look to build out higher-margin snack sets. King's Hawaiian's brand recognition — built primarily on its roll and bun business — gives it an above-average shot at consumer trial without the heavy promotional spending that typically accompanies an unproven new CPG brand launch. The "MMMBites" campaign timing ahead of the 30th anniversary of "MMMBop" in 2027 also gives the brand an earned-media runway that extends beyond a typical new-item launch window.
For operators managing the snack, bread, and morning-occasion sets, Soft Swirl Cinnamon Bites arrive as a nationally supported item with an active media campaign — a factor that influences scan data trajectories in the critical first 12 weeks of distribution.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
