BELGIUM. Belgium chocolate manufacturer and retailer Galler plans to expand its duty-free presence by entering new markets. Export manager, Charles Dourcy, talks exclusively to The Moodie Report about the company’s aspirations and achievements.
You are seeking to expand your duty free presence in Europe. How successful was the International Food Exhibition (IFE) in London in March in expanding your contacts?
Charles Dourcy: For our first presence at IFE, this fair was very successful in terms of contacts and the image we gave to the visitors.
We have a real interest supplying our top quality chocolate to the UK market, and we made contact at the show with UK department stores and specialised gourmet shops. Some companies in the hamper business were also very interested in our products.
Duty free retail buyers commented on the nice presentation, the quality of chocolate and the fact that Galler is a “Belgian Royal Warrant Holder.”
I personally never give direct results of our success at trade shows as we consider that half of budget represents “image communication” and the other half is “business”.
Of course this type of fair did lead us to conclude some agreements with operators, but duty free was not the main objective. Department stores, major distributors, catering, franchising, foreign importers were also part of our contacts.
TMR: What duty- free markets are you targetting?
Charles Dourcy: The market we are looking for is the top quality retail end in duty-free. Our fresh small sized pralines, the wide range of 70g praline filled chocolate bars, 100g tablets, and the funny “cat’s tongues,” the gourmet spreads, all present Galler as one of the Belgian specialists of top quality chocolate.
Therefore we do not want to be presented as the Belgian market leader of chocolate bars (80 % of our turnover) or as the specialist of natural pralines, but as a specialist of chocolate in general with a wide choice.
TMR: How much business do you currently have in the duty-free business?
Charles Dourcy: Galler is a small size company with 85 workers. We cannot be compared with major operators in the Belgian chocolate world.
We have some contacts with airports in UK and other parts of the world. Our presence is mainly in Brussels airport, Germany, and some service on board BA and Lufthansa. We have also appointed Francis Beylemans as duty-free consultant to help us develop in this sector. He is based in Switzerland and has lots of airport contacts.
TMR: Do you predict any difficulties in entering certain markets with such a premium range of products?
Charles Dourcy: The fact is that the current climate in duty-free and the economic situation of airline companies due to SARS and the war in Iraq has made entering new markets more difficult. This sector in not the priority in Galler’s development scheme – developments in travel retail will run parallel to our focus on growth in domestic markets.
Taste is never a problem. We have tested our products in many countries. From China to the USA, Japan and Europe, good quality chocolate can always be appreciated by a public of chocolate lovers. The problem is the price, because it is not always easy to explain why one chocolate bar can be twice the price of another chocolate bar. Natural vanilla, selected dry fruits, fresh cream and all high quality ingredients can cost 28 times the price of some substitutes… it’s a bit like Champagne and wines.
TMR: Tell us about some of your more recent n-store initiatives and product launches.
Charles Dourcy: The best success today is the “Cat’s tongue” in a tin containing a string of 18 pieces of chocolate filled with “praline” which contains 45% hazelnuts.
This product is perfect for the gift market: it is easy to handle, well packed, humorous, part of an exclusive assortment of four flavours and designs and can be given as a gift for any period (Easter and end of the year without modification). The design was created by a well-known Belgian cartoonist Philippe Geluck (www.geluck.com). The “cat” will celebrate its 20th anniversary this year, with exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Lyon and Bordeaux.
Heavy presence on French TV and French speaking press and continual new editions help to support the promotion of our chocolates.
Galler is also expanding its chain of domestic retail outlets through franchising agreements. Its chain of outlets now totals 22, spread throughout Belgium, France and Luxembourg. The latest opening took place in Bruges recently, and we aim to raise the number of stores to 100.
