confectionary

Confectionary company and newsagency supplier Darrell Lea has been placed in voluntary administration.  Depending on what happens with their products this could leave a confectionary void in some newsagencies.

Darrell Lea lost their way, in my view, by going into supermarkets and petrol & convenience a few years ago and by playing with their traditional product packaging and recipes. Their corporate deal with Terry White Chemists a year back also seemed odd given the challenge to existing retail relationships.

The appointment of administrators overlays the future of the business with a formal process which many of us will watch with interest.

Anyone want to buy an iconic brand?

One challenge for newsagents with counter offers is now to keep them tidy. With our counters very busy, loose product does not work. I was pleased to see this Tic Tac display in a couple of newsagencies recently. It’s neat, tidy and compelling, ideal for a busy counter. What’s more, the newsagents I spoke with tell me it is working a treat, driving good impulse purchase business with shoppers who present at the sales counter – regular and transit newsagencies.

We have on display as part of our Easter offer. I was therefore thrilled to see the full page advertising being undertaken by cadbury promoting this product. It was in Who a week back.  They have also setup a Facebook page which has attracted 4,000 followers.

One reason I love supporting nation brands is for their advertising spend which can drive traffic and or impulse purchases. People who have seen the advertising more quickly ‘get’ a product when they see it in-store.

This is our first completely Cadbury easter and we’re thrilled with how it is playing for us so far. I love the mix of products and that they have tapped into fun and are supporting this advertising and social media engagement.

By the way, we have kept eggs to a minimum … Easter for us is about plush, collectibles (Beanie Kids), cards and fun Cadbury items.

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.

Unless you are living in a cave you would have seen the Kit Kat advertising blitz promoting their new Chunky 3 product.  What with the TV, outdoor and digital campaigns it is hard to miss the higher profile for the Kit Hat branded product.    The latest Convenience World magazine indicates it’s a $6M spend. This product is something newsagents should have at the counter.  If we don’t and only have the old regular Kit Kat then we are not current or relevant.

One of the reason everyday confectionery sales are flat in newsagencies is that our range is not as current as it could be.  The Kit Kat Chunky 3 is an opportunity not to be missed.

The new recipe Darrell Lea Rocklea Road cake is not selling so well this Christmas.  All other Darrell Lea items have performed well.  This Christmas cake is usually a winner.  But not this year.

I suspect that the sales drop off this year is due to the new packaging, you can no longer see the cake, and the promoted new recipe – why change what was loved.

The drop off is not only in our stores, I have heard from others that sales are down.

Half the Darrell Lea Choc Mint Balls we received in the last shipment arrived damaged.  I suspect there is a production problem with this product because quality is usually not an issue with Darrell Lea product.

We have had to remove the damaged product from the shelves as it looks bad for us and for the Darrell Lea brand.

Christmas is an excellent season to have the Darrell Lea range as it brings in infrequent visitors looking to stock up on their Darrell Lea fix.  While we see good impulse business from regular shoppers, it is those who visit seeking out Darrell Lea product because they know we carry this brand who interest me.  Given that pretty much everything else we sell is available in other stores in a shopping centre, the Darrell Lea control of retail outlets is welcome – especially this time of the year.

Kudos to Darrell Lea for producing another excellent counter unit. Too often we have suppliers who ask us to put products at the counter but do little to help achieve this. Darrell Lea started playing with counter units a couple of years ago having previously pushed back on the idea.

This latest counter unit is for their Fruit & Nut Rocklea Road. It offers everything I want to see in a counter unit – attention grabbing graphics, a compelling offer, a new product and a good impulse purchase friendly price point.

This unit from Darrell Lea puts what is provided by most other newsagent suppliers to shame.

We have it at the counter and move it from one counter point to another through the week.  Sales are excellent. The bar itself is delcious!

We are seeing a stronger and or earlier Easter than last year.  It is hard to say whether the season overall will beat last year right now because the only time to properly assess the season is at the end.  Card, gift and egg sales are all performing well – gifts especially.  Eggs kicked in this week, it was like someone said that it’s okay to buy Easter eggs now and shoppers came from everywhere.  In a couple of our stores the sales kick was so strong that made arrangements for more stock.

We went out early with Easter, right after Valentine’s Day.  Going early works well for us – we already have a good range of Mother’s Day stock out and it’s selling.

Our view on seasons is that the sooner we position ourselves as being strong in a season the better.

I like the merchandising unit provided by Darrell Lea for their new Pineapple liquorice and Pineapple Paradise Bar.  The small footprint, promotion of two products, bright colour and fun design should help drive good sales.

The display unit doubles as a reminder to our customers that we carry Darrell Lea products in-store.

The key with this display as with all counter offers is to ensure that the space around is not cluttered.

The signposts get stronger each day that Christmas is near.  This week, Darrell Lea came in and was put up, right at the front of the shop to attract passers-by.  To do that we had to move product elsewhere and from that spare other product to elsewhere.  Moving stock is a key use of labour in newsagencies between now and the New year.  I’m not complaining, it is an important part of retail.  All suppliers need to understand the considerable demands on time right now.

We will move the Darrell Lea range a couple of times in the season as regulars soon become store-blind to these offers.

It is good to see Darrell Lea continue with their counter units.  They introduced these a year ago – a departure for the company which preferred that their products were displayed on their units.   The Cookies & Cream Rocklea Road at the counter shows that there is more to the Darrell Lea range than the traditional.  I like that they bring in new products like this for a season.  By the way, a check online revealed that Darrell Lea products have fans in the US.