Welch’s Fruit Snacks targets Gen Z with growing functional snacks offerings

As gut health continues to dominate the wellness conversation, 25-year-old Welch’s Fruit Snacks is the latest legacy brand to lean into better-for-you snacking by adapting to changing wellness habits. This year, Welch’s Fruit Snacks is continuing to expand beyond its traditional line of fruit snacks with the launch of a new functional offering. This summer, it rolled out Welch’s Probiotic Yogofruits, marking the brand’s entry into the growing yogurt snack category, which purports to support digestive health. And earlier this year, it announced that it had completed the process of phasing out artificial food dyes across its portfolio. These moves are the latest by Welch’s Fruit Snacks in its quest to retain its spot as the top-selling fruit snack brand in the country as it caters to a wider demographic that includes young Gen Z. Lisa Eustic, senior vp of marketing at parent company Welch’s Snacks maker PIM Brands, told Modern Retail that the Probiotic Yogofruits launch caters to growing consumer demand for snacks that combine taste and functional wellness. “The consumer is at the center of everything we’re doing,” Eustic said. “We never stop listening or innovating in the fruit snacks space.” She added that, while Welch’s Fruit Snacks have long been known as a lunchbox staple, the brand wants to bring in a wider demographic by targeting a comparatively older Gen Z. “We increasingly see ourselves as a more functional snack that supports digestive wellness, which is what Yogofruits is all about,” she said. Aside from containing 2 billion probiotic cultures per serving, Eustic said the product is also non-GMO and is corn syrup- and peanut-free. “It also has three grams of fiber and is halal,” said Eustic. “This is a reflection of us listening to consumers about function and delivering something for specific usage and times in their life.” Similar to core Welch’s Fruit Snacks multi-packs, the new line will retail for $7.99 per box. The brand is also continuing to add more zero-sugar and no-sugar-added options to its growing product lines. “We have a line called Welch’s Fruitfuls, which is fruit strips, and just this year, we’re relaunching it with a formula that has no sugar added,” Eustic said. Then there is Welch’s Fruit Snacks’ Fusions line, which relaunched in 2025 as a rebrand of its previous iteration, the Juicefuls line. Fusions is now built around flavor combinations and dual textures that play up unexpected pairings. Some of the flavors available in the Fusions line include watermelon lemon, peach green apple and pink grapefruit tangerine. “They’re combinations that people wouldn’t necessarily expect, but that are really delicious and reflect Gen Z’s sense of adventure and discovery,” said Eustic. To promote the Fusions line specifically to Gen Z, the company is targeting music fans at festivals, Eustic said. Earlier this summer, Welch’s popped up at Gov Ball, and it will activate at Lollapalooza later this month. The upcoming Lollapalooza campaign will feature creator partnerships and nationwide sweeps to win VIP Lollapalooza tickets and a trip to the Chicago festival. Welch’s Fruit Snacks is part of a wave of established CPG brands modernizing their portfolios to better reflect millennials’ and Gen Z’s health and wellness goals. John Scheer, co-founder and chief creative director of strategic brand agency Herman Scheer, previously told Modern Retail that much of the change he’s seeing in food categories is being driven by families and kids. “There is also Frito-Lay dipping their toes into the natural space by introducing dye-free Doritos and Cheetos,” Scheer said. But by not fully committing to phasing out artificial colors, it appears that the company is “hedging their commitment to see if consumers actually care.” According to Eustic, Welch’s Fruit Snacks’ R&D and marketing efforts from the past few years appear to be paying off for the brand. “We’ve doubled the Fusions business, and it’s a relatively new line that’s just a few years old,” she said. Eustic noted that, in addition, the brand’s TikTok followers have increased more than 70% over the past year. “That engagement, product modernization and cool content is being reflected in both the numbers and the engagement on social,” she said.