UK. Masterfoods International Travel Retail (MITR) is launching eight new packs in the adult and children’s gift markets at the Duty Free Show of the Americas in Orlando later this month. The company says the initiatives follow a year of significant progress, particularly in the inflight market.
MITR consultant Stuart Bull commented: “This year has been extraordinary – despite major setbacks in the global environment, MITR sales have continued to gain ground, increase market share and sales. We have so many strong brands we are able to offer our retail partners a virtual chocolate shop from one catalogue.
“The foundations of our success are clearly identifying our consumers’ needs and offering globally recognised and trusted brands at realistic prices. The inflight sector is showing huge growth for us and is a key part of our strategy for 2004. Specially-designed pack ranges for inflight are delivering many new accounts for MITR,” said Bull.
The new exclusive MITR packs for 2004 to be introduced in Orlando include the following:
Celebrations Jumbo Jar – 1.3kg of the successful Celebrations confectionery, ideal for informal gifting and sharing with family and friends;
Galaxy 150g Multipack – an assortment of three x 150g bars with milk chocolate; hazelnut; fruit and hazelnut varieties in an attractive decorative box.
In children’s gifts the new line-up includes:
M&M’s Minis Toy Dispenser Multipack (pictured) – 100g milk chocolate M&M’s Minis with two toy dispensers. Just push the spring-loaded character to release the M&M’s Minis, hours of fun for children, plus collectable toy characters on top, featuring snowboarder, skateboarder, biker, basketball, hockey and soccer players;
M&Ms Peanut Bucket – 750g, similar to the top selling Maltesers bucket, the bright yellow M&M’s version carries travel motifs, M&M’s characters and contains 750g of M&M’s peanut confectionery
M&M’s Hexubes – a new design with three x 75g hexagonal tubes of M&M’s peanut confectionery, this pack offers colour and gift appeal with a new range of collectable M&M’s characters with sporting theme;
M&M’s Pots Travel Case – three pots totalling 800g of confectionery including, peanut, chocolate, and crispy M&M’s confectionery within brightly designed M&M’s pots packaged together with a handy carry case;
Heritage Van – an update of this traditional classic. New vans containing 200g of Twix and M&M’s, Milky Way and Mars confectionery alongside the ever popular heritage vehicle. Each shipping case contains an assortment of the four brands;
Milky Way Stars Tube – 108g of the popular children’s confectionery within an easy to carry travel tube.
The new packs are added to the already extensive MITR exclusives range, which enjoyed high sales growth and increased market share during the last turbulent twelve months. MITR said the successes developing so far this year are: M&M Minis and Celebrations, the fastest-growing brand continues to grow in all pack formats and the Celebrations 825g tall jar is the company’s biggest single SKU.
The star range of the year is Minis bags, both mixed Minis 500g and the range of 400g mono brands: Mars, Snickers, Bounty, Twix and Milky Way. This range is the foundation of many retailers self consumption/sharing offer.
MITR said M&M’s remains the dominant brand in the portfolio, but a wider mix of other brands, including Dove/Galaxy, Bounty Callapuno, and Dove/Galaxy Amicelli, have seen far greater growth than previously.
MITR’s top five global packs are currently:
Celebrations 825g jar
M&M’s Scubes 150g chocolates
M&M’s Scubes 150g peanut
M&M’s Minis Dispenser 100g
Mixed Minis 500g
Newly-appointed MITR Manager for the Americas Felix Suarez said: “The travel retail business in the Americas is a real challenge and I am looking forward to working closely with our partners to build a strong business using MITR’s megabrands and creating in-store theatre and promotional displays to drive traffic.”
Felix Suarez was previously regional manager in the Caribbean managing Masterfoods domestic business.
In Orlando MITR will be situated in its usual spot at stand number 405/407.
Travel retail enquiries to Stuart Bull, consultant to MITR, telephone +44 (0)1494 675460 or email stuart@SBA-International.com
