Darrell Lea has been all over the place over the last couple of years. What was once a controlled and respected brand is being found in more and more retail outlets. This makes the Darrell Lea brand less interesting to retailers like newsagents. It’s no longer the special and well-managed brand.
While Darrell Lea could change again and fix their model, the current situation opens our channel up to an opportunity for another chocolate and candy brand which understands the importance of good brand management to partner with newsagents and through this to leverage our excellent traffic.
While there is always Cadbury as the most popular chocolate brand in Australia, I think that there is an opportunity for a non-supermarket brand for a point of difference around premium chocolate. Some brands have had a crack but they have not understood the newsagency channel.
I’d like to be able to sell quality chocolates with a good margin all year round … they make and ideal gift line.
Yes Darrell Lea has been all over the place. They are in my view damaging their brand. They tried BP Servos and Supermarkets (using a lower quality but branded liquorice). Both I believe have ceased.
It appears Generational change has taken place at Darrell Lea. I am told all Agents within NSW have refused to sign a new contract with Darrell and are now sourcing product elsewhere.
It took me a while to get Darrell Lea into my shop and whilst I waited I dabbled with Dolce D’oro chocolates out of Sydney. Personally I think their chocolate is far superior to DL however it doesn’t have the marketing or brand awareness that DL have. Having visited their Sydney showroom I noted that they produce many of the same styles of product that DL do but then again I suppose a lot of other confectionery suppliers do as well.
I haven’t had it for a while given our DL display is so big and it would be too much confectionery to stock it as well but I recall the margin being quite reasonable and well above the 25% from DL. Easter product is exceptional.
For us, DL is pretty much useless for 9 months of the year but they do well at easter, Mday F Day and Christmas.They are very inflexible and hard to deal with,
Some very odd activity in some of their retail stores as well.. noticed the one here in the Perth CBD does “20% off everything” between 9 and 11am every day. Thats definitely a way to de-value your brand and store, especially when the sign is up all day every day…
Squee – what Darrel lea store does 20% off? I live in Perth and want to check it out!
We also stock Darrell Lea product and I know they try and change their range for their outlets, so that stores and outlets don’t steal each others sales. It’s worked for mine so far.
Holly, the one down Plaza arcade has the promo I mentioned. Seemed very extreme despite how slow the Perth CBD is before 11am.
Just noticed an enhanced range of Darrell Lea product in my BIG W neighbouring store.In amongst the Orange balls, Rocky Road, cartons etc. I find I can buy a box of 6 bars for $9.97. This is interesting as it costs me $10.35 nett to buy the same bars from DL. So I am about to advise DL that I am not going to purchase these bars from them anymore. I see other retailers going into BIG W and loading up on Coke for the same reason. It’s cheaper to buy from them than direct from CCA. So of course, Woolies/BIG W and their competitor become such huge clients, they demand more and more discounts/etc from Coke. And as we know from last year, even Coke/CCA had to back down and concede to the supermarket giants. But perhaps, Darrell Lea hasn’t heard that story.
The press is reporting that Darrell Lea has been placed into administration this morning, at the request of their own Board. Given that many newsagents are stockists, here’s hoping that the problems can be resolved.