GSK, owner of sports nutrition brand Maximuscle, is aiming to drive growth in the sports and nutrition category with the introduction of nine new Maximuscle bars.

Launching in January 2017, the bars offer nine flavours, including; Chocolate Brownie, Millionaires’ Shortbread, Cookie Dough and Oat & Raisin Flapjack.

Each bar provides 20g of protein and has been segmented into different categories to support the consumer with their personal goals.

The goals and ingredients are: Strength (Cyclone), with 20g protein and 3g creatine; Mass (Progain), with 20g protein and contains complex carbohydrates from oats; Lean (Promax Lean), with 20g protein and no added sugar; and Restore (Promax), with 20g protein and helps muscle development.

Bars are currently worth £31m and the fastest growing segment in the category at +47% (Nielsen, SPN Summary, Value Sales, MAT, Total Coverage Sales to w/e 10.09.16).

Monica Michalopoulou, MaxiNutrition marketing manager, said: “Here at GSK we want to meet people’s needs through tapping into invaluable shopper insights. We know that with bars in double digit growth, this is one of the key ways that shoppers first enter the category alongside RTDs (ready to drink), so we wanted to offer some great tasting new Maximuscle bars to attract shoppers into the category. Plus, 61% of consumption is for meal or snack occasions, even among performance users only half of consumption is for workout occasion (The Boston Consulting Group, Adult Specialty Nutrition UK Workshop, August 2012), so by offering a range of great tasting new flavours, we can offer what they’re looking for whilst meeting their sports and nutrition needs too.”

The new bars will be supported with a new marketing campaign.