With all Darrell Lea outlets being closed as part of the sale of the Darrell Lea business, maybe licenced retailers, like many newsagents, will benefit. It all depends on the direction the new owners take the business – to mass or specialist. The press reports indicate they will use the current licenced network. If they stick with newsagents will be among the winners.
Good news.
Will we have to consider selling VIP Pet Food ?
They will probably go to the supermarkets….and that will ensure the products becomes ordinary…..
if i had just taken on DL, i would be flogging the product off at whatever retail space i could get, but would ensure it was a quality product with a premium price, if the big 2 wanted to flog it off cheap, so be it, but they still pay the premium price and wear the loss.
Baz
they Tried Woolies and Coles got their fingers burnt. Then tried BP servos and Big W again got their fingers burnt. They then signed a deal with Terry White Pharmacies (I do not know how this went though it is more like their traditional approach) while ignoring and starving their Agent and Sub agent network. this fathers day is the first time in 2 years I have been able to get plenty of Darell Lea. For the past 2 years I have been sourcing alternative product just to fill the shelves.
The previous board managed to trash a brand name. Hopefully it will come back and the signs are good. People still know the Brand Name and still associate it with a luxury chocolate items. There is a tremendous amount of Goodwill out there for the Brand Name. The Publicity from receivership was a tremendous boost to sales.
Darrell Lea is the one confectionary line that customers ask for by brand. They expect us to stock it. We carry some lines but the current margins don’t justify giving it too much shelf space.
Azeem I have a similar experience. DL is good when seasonal events are on. The rest of the year it deserves v little space, especially considering the paltry margin, and the vagaries of ordering, expiries and pack sizes; together with the big range. I would like a bigger margin on the everyday stuff, a cut in the range and a smaller stand,lower in height. I hope I can continue to access DL but am not prepared to fill up the size stand i have currently. fingers crossed. I have a nearby Terry white but they haven,t bothered to put DL in.
The new owners need to;
1. Build on their core products,
2. Use the newsagency network – their products will work better with cards and seasons rather than pharmaceutical products.
3. Avoid supermarkets. Their margins will be squeezed and brands devalued as their products are played against Cadbury and Red Tulip.
The new owners have already announced they will close company stores but will expand the number of channel outlets. I hope that means they will also look at margins if if they are focussing on channel sales.