The product will be known in the US as Biscoff Spread, which matches the name (a pairing of “biscuit” and “coffee”) of the speculoos biscuits given to passengers of Delta Airlines with their coffee. The spread faces an ambitious challenge – to steal some of the market share held by old favourite peanut butter, by offering an alternative aimed at those allergic to peanuts.

“Apart from the name, this is exactly the same product,” as the speculoos spread sold in Belgium, said Lotus CEO Matthieu Boone. “It is produced here in Lembeke and shipped to the United States.”

Lotus has high expectations, Boone continued. “The Americans are huge consumers of peanut butter, but there’s been nothing new in that segment of the market for years. Our biscuits have been successful for some time in the States, so we thought the time was ripe to bring our spread to the market.”
Peanut butter, with or without its traditional accompaniment of jelly, has been a staple of American sandwiches almost since it was first developed in 1894 by the Kellogg brothers (of breakfast cereal fame), who described it as a “pasty adhesive substance” they called “nut butter”.

Allergy to peanuts, however, is on the increase, affecting some 3.3 million Americans and leading to such public concern that warnings are now standard on the packaging of any food that may contain minute traces of peanut. Whether such concern is valid is a matter of discussion, with some experts pointing out that about three times as many people are allergic to seafood and that most peanut allergy sufferers are children, who have been found to grow out of it. Indeed, according to one British survey, early exposure to peanuts was more likely to protect against the allergy than cause it.

The climate of concern, however, is something Lotus aims to take advantage of, by positioning its Biscoff Spread as a nut-free alternative. But it’s an uphill struggle, admits Marco De Leeuw, in charge of marketing the spread in the US. “Peanut butter is an icon,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is say to the customer, drop that and buy this. We aim to create our own niche, an extra pot in the cupboard – the kind of position Nutella has achieved in recent years.”

Lotus currently makes about €25 million from American sales of its biscuits; Nutella sells about €50 million worth of its spread (which contains nuts); while the peanut butter market is worth about $1 billion (€720 million).

Lotus meanwhile has decided not to appeal the decision of a court in Ghent in January that overturned the company’s patent in speculoos spread (Flanders Today, 26 January). The ruling did nothing to stop Lotus’ production but did permit other companies to bring out their own versions of the spread, which the court said had been invented prior to 2002, when the recipe appeared on a Dutch website. “The unique taste experience of Lotus speculoos spread backs up the company’s opinion that the cancellation of the patent will have next to no effect on our market position,” the company said in a statement. According to some estimates, sales of the product in Belgium alone are worth around €10 million a year.

Former prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene announced last week that he is stepping down as director of the boards of Lotus Bakeries, materials group Umicore and Leuven-based brewers InBev. He has reached the 70-year age limit for board members of the three companies but remains chairman of the board of Dexia bank and of biotechnology group Thrombogenics.