Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. After years of tremendous growth, gum sales have struggled as new products and line extensions crowd the category. By Marilyn Odesser-Torpey, Associate Editor. Innovation is a great thing, especially in the fickle gum category. But Danna Huskey, category manager for Texarkana, Texas-based E-Z Mart stores…
Hot New Look
HOT TAMALES cinnamon-charged candy is heating things up this spring with a new look, unveiling new package graphics for the brand that consumers have loved for over 50 years. The new package graphics feature a more modern, fiercer design. While still maintaining its traditional fireball, the bold new flames highlight the heat within. The new…
Rite Aid’s Stansfield Honored With 2012 Confectionery Leadership Award
2012 marks the third time Stansfield is recognized by NCA with previous wins 1994 and 2003. Rite Aid Category Manager Val Stansfield received the 2012 Confectionery Leadership Award from the National Confectioners Association (NCA), one of the oldest, most respected confection associations in the world. Awarded annually, recipients must demonstrate exemplary leadership behaviors in business…
New Twist On Snacking
General Mills is giving convenience store retailers a new twist on growing fruit and candy section sales with new Nature Valley Fruit Twists. A convenience channel exclusive, Nature Valley Fruit Twists are available in cherry and strawberry, provide two servings of fruit in each package, and are also 100% natural and gluten-free. At 1.27 ounces,…
Hershey To Acquire Brookside Foods
“The acquisition of Brookside is an opportunity for Hershey to expand our portfolio in this category,” says Hershey’s CEO. The Hershey Co. has reached an agreement to purchase Brookside Foods Ltd., a privately held confectionery company based in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Brookside is a chocolate confectionery company with products based on a unique formula…
Malcolm Elected to Hershey Co.’s Board
“His vast experience in marketing, building global consumer brands and delivering innovation will be of immense value to The Hershey Co.,” says chairman of the Hershey’s Board of Directors. The Hershey Co. has elected Robert Malcolm, former president, global marketing, sales and innovation at Diageo plc to its Board of Directors, effective Dec. 7, 2011.…
Certified Sustainable Chocolate
Mars Chocolate North America’s iconic DOVE Brand Chocolate is set to be the first mainstream chocolate brand in the U.S. to bear the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal on its dark chocolate products. Beginning in the fall, DOVE Brand Silky Smooth Dark Chocolate will source 100% of its cocoa volume from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms, and…
Confidence in Confections
TOP PERFORMERS Wrigley Cadbury Adams Hershey’s HONORABLE MENTIONS Farley & Sathers Just Born Perfetti Van Melle According to the 2009 NACS State of the Industry report (SOI), the confections category in a typical convenience store contributes $44,820 to sales and $21,336 in gross margin dollars, for an average gross margin of 47.6%. Top performers in…
A Functional Boost to Confections
You know the truism about Americans wanting more of everything is, indeed, true when we begin demanding more from our candy, gum and mint products than just good taste. As with beverages over the last decade or so, so-called functional snacks are slowly gaining respect in the convenience store channel, as major manufacturers roll products…
Hitting the Customers’ “Sweet Spot”
The ability to offer outstanding service remains the industry’s biggest asset. Do whatever it takes to exceed expectations. Doing a late night check on our new Huddle House restaurant attached to a quite awesome BP travel center, I arrived just in time to tackle the concerns of a pretty tough and very tired truck driver…