Bringing mischief back to confectionery
Kraft Foods is launching Maynards Sour Patch Kids, a range of fruity flavour candy characters, into the UK market.
This latest addition to the Kraft Foods candy portfolio has five colour and flavour offerings of orange, lemon, raspberry, lime and blackcurrant. Each character’s taste offers a tongue twisting sour sensation, followed by a mouth-watering fruity flavour ending on a sweet note. As with other sharing bags in the brand’s portfolio, the design features the Maynards logo highlighting the unique ‘sour then sweet’ taste experience underneath. The designs are an explosion of colours and the cheeky character sweets are placed in the centre and around the edge of the bag to create fantastic standout on shelf.
This new addition brings added excitement to Kraft Foods’ current portfolio and is the perfect treat to be enjoyed by teens and families anytime and anywhere, as it is available in a 160g sharing bag and 45g impulse size and with the trend for ‘On The Go’ and ‘Big Night In’, there is a huge opportunity for the growth of family-friendly sweet treats.
Sours is a category in growth worth over £46m in sales and a growing at 15% YoY. Pocket candy packs have also achieved impressive sales of £4m. The pocket candy category in the UK is now worth £453m, with number one manufacturer Kraft having a 24% market share; growing 8% YoY.
Zoe Howe, senior brand manager for Candy at Kraft Foods, comments, “Sour confectionery sharing bags are currently delivering considerable growth for the overall category, however we identified a need to bring a product to market that is relevant to teens and families, something a bit edgier, and Maynards Sour Patch Kids was the perfect candidate. We’re hoping to inject some mischief and fun back in to the market, with a product with youth relevance. We are constantly keeping up to date with consumer tastes and ensure that our sharing portfolio remains as relevant as ever, providing retailers with an exciting product offer for their shoppers.”
Kraft Foods is supporting the launch with a heavyweight marketing investment from early September, which includes POS such as pre-filled units, experiential sampling activity, cinema advertising, outdoor advertising and social media. It is recommended that retailers merchandise new Maynards Sour Patch Kids with the existing Maynards sharing bags and impulse bag ranges and consider secondary siting as part of a ‘sour then sweet’ fixture to drive incremental sales.
Kraft Foods have rebranded the number one US sour branded confectionery Sour Patch Kids for the UK as Maynards Sour Patch Kids. Kraft Foods have taken the opportunity to make the product more relevant to a British audience through flavour varieties and shape definition, while retaining the natural colour credentials of the rest of the Maynards range.