At the recent TFWA Asia Pacific show, Dermot Davitt met General Manager Mars Netherlands and Global Travel & Retail Jack Tabbers and Mars Wrigley International Travel Retail Sales Director Marcus Hudson to talk about the potential of the regional market and the wider opportunity for the confectionery category.
“We have a lot of room to grow in terms of category visibility and the in-store experience in Asia Pacific. We know how advanced the food & confectionery category capability is in domestic markets, but that has yet to be matched in travel retail, but the opportunity is there.”
That’s how Mars Wrigley International Travel Retail Sales Director Marcus Hudson outlines the challenge to position confectionery at the heart of the travel retail offer in Asia Pacific today, even as Mars Inc’s brands, led by M&Ms, have vast penetration in local markets.
Hudson adds: “We need to push open that door. We are supporting our retail and distribution partners in this region to change the perspective about the role of confectionery. We know the category better than anyone else, we have the brands to do it, and we have the global credibility with domestic markets to back it up. So we need to be in that conversation more proactively than before.”
General Manager Mars Netherlands and Global Travel & Retail Jack Tabbers adds: “Where we are today is also about legacy. In Asia Pacific, liquor and beauty at the luxury end of the business gets more attention. We know that travellers need something for a gift or a bargain, but you also need the opportunity to buy on impulse at the airport.
“We can make a difference. If we look at our domestic business in China, it is vast, yet our confectionery business is relatively small. We aim to change that.”
Making that difference comes down to several factors, among them taking a category-first approach”, driven by consumption moments that are top of consumers’ mind at the point of sale.
Tabbers says: “The conversations three years ago were all about brands. Now it’s more about the category progression. Everybody understands that confectionery plays a different role to the other main categories and that it serves different needs.
“In a way confectionery is still a brand game, and the consumer is not always helped by the brands to make decisions. But it is getting there. We have more conversations now where retailers want to test with us to see what really drives conversion. We are getting more traction in Europe and the Middle East compared to Asia on this currently.”
Hudson says: “We need to first get the fundamentals right. The in-store environment and the core merchandising must be right.
“It’s great to be able to tap into digital, the Metaverse and so on, but if at the same time, we have a globally agreed promotional plan that is not executed in the shops, and the confectionery category in-store is not inviting to enter, then those other elements need to take a back seat. Because we know that a well-executed campaign and in-store fundamentals will drive growth above anything else. That all takes a lot of time with the retailers.
“We cannot divert ourselves away from that category conversation, driving traction around our core fundamentals. So that means working on the right value proposition on the shop floor, working on transaction levels and working on impulse. And then what we do with our enhanced portfolio and experiences will all be implemented together. And through our brands we can do that better than anyone else.”
Mars-Wrigley has spoken about using the power of its brands such as world-leading M&Ms to bring fresh life to travel retail environments – with more news on this to come later in the year.
Hudson says: “One of the things that we are doing very differently, and it is really starting to get traction, is connecting M&Ms into travel retail as part of a global ecosystem, and how we work together with M&Ms’ power in the domestic market.
“We have been having some great conversations with our partners about the differentiation that travel retail really needs versus how we make use of a global eco-system that our brands offer.
“Within Mars there is a lot of excitement about this. If you look at the scale of travel retail sales versus its share of voice internally, within Mars Inc we over-index, which tells us that the business is very interested in the channel. We will continue to invest behind that.”
Alongside developments for flagship brand M&Ms there are some big initiatives planned for Galaxy, which is “exciting in particular for our Middle East customers”, notes Hudson.
Ultimately, says Hudson, there is still a compelling case for confectionery as part of the travel retail mix – one that it is continuing to drive in regions where the sector has a lower share of sales than in others. That process continues, but he and Tabbers remain upbeat about the bigger, long-term picture.
Hudson says: “I am proud of the work we’re doing to confront the reality in the category. We come with a great selling story: this is a low-maintenance, high-percentage margin, incremental and impulse-driven category, and there is no negative to spending time working on it. Some of the partners really buy into that message but we need to keep pushing it with others. That work continues.” 
