Oser Communications Group

9 August 2018 SNACKING NEWS Ferrero USA Inc. took the Gum and Mints category with its new Tic Tac Gum. A hard shell coating gives way to a tropical fruit mix-flavored gum. Suggested retail price is $1.39 for a 56-piece 0.95-ounce pack. Ferrero USA Inc. also won in the Sea- sonal category for its Ferrero Rocher Golden Heart, a milk chocolate and hazelnut shell with two Ferrero Rocher chocolates inside. The heart is packaged in classic gold foil. Sug- gested retail is $6.79 for 4.4 ounces. Hershey's new Her- shey's Gold Standard Bar, with inclusions of peanuts and pretzels for extra crunch, won the Chocolate category. Its suggested retail price is 99 cents for a 1.4-ounce bar. Nerds won the Non-Chocolate category with its new Big Chewy Nerds, featuring a crunchy shell surrounding a chewy cen- ter, and some fun, goofy package graphics. The candy is made with no artificial fla- vors. Suggested retail is $1.99 for a six- ounce package. In the Savory Snacks category, Alli & Rose's Trail Mix Crackers took top hon- ors. Each cracker includes seeds, nuts and fruit, and the crackers are baked, not fried. The indi- vidually wrapped crackers have only 60 calories. The crackers are sold in a 2.5- ounce resealable pouch, with a suggested retail price of $4.99. Sahale Snacks won in the Salty Snacks cat- egory for its Tangerine Vanilla Cashew- Macadamia Glazed mix. The company said the flavors were in- spired by an orange- vanilla Popsicle. Suggested retail is $4.29 for a 4-ounce package. Justin's Organic White Chocolate Mini Peanut Butter Cups won the Sweet Snacks category. The bite-sized confection offers consumers another option in the sweet snack category. Sug- gested retail is $5.99 for a 4.07-ounce package. In the Novelty/Li- censed category, Im- pact Confections, Inc. won with its Warheads Dippin' Ring. Kids and adults can create their own sour expe- rience with extreme sour products, fruit flavors and a color- ful package. Sug- gested retail is $1.49 for a 0.88-ounce package. n Sweets & Snacks Continued from Page 1 dividual or group "Tour de Sweet" at $50 per person, which includes a per- sonal "candy tour specialist," tastings of candy, fudge and ice cream, a Dylan's Candy Bar water bottle, games, cus- tomized chocolate bars, a 10 percent discount and a one-pound "candy spree." The Chicago store does 500 to 1,000 transactions a day, says Weisenburger. "That's on a slow day," he says. "On a busy day, it might be two to three thousand transactions." The center of the store's first floor, just past the company's iconic giant lollipop tree, features a circle of by-the-pound can- dies, many of them old favorites such as Smarties and Swedish fish. Customers can grab a bag and take as much as they wish. Then they carry the bag (or bags) upstairs to pay for them, guaranteeing that they'll see more confections on their way to the cashiers. The walls of the curved staircase are lined with more candies, as is the aisle leading to the cashiers at the back of the second floor. Upstairs, you'll find more candy, in- cluding a huge jelly bean station, many more suckers, and a fudge station with a dozen or more flavors ranging from basic (chocolate with walnuts) to more exotic (dulce de leche). The fudge isn't made on premise, Weisenburger says, but it is al- ways freshly made. Elsewhere upstairs, there are displays of candy-themed merchandise, including everything from strollers, bags and back- packs to kids' clothing, stationery, Dylan's Candy Bar branded items and various types of candy-themed toys, including spinners. Dylan's Candy Bar was founded in 2001 by Dylan Lauren, the daughter of fashion designer Ralph Lauren. The flagship New York store, at Third Av- enue and 60th Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side, "transports its guests to a modern-day version of Willy Wonka's factory the moment they enter," the company's website, www.dylanscandybar.com, says. In ad- dition to the Chicago store, which opened in November, 2014, the com- pany also has stores in Los Angeles, Miami and East Hampton. Guests who didn't get their fill of candy at the store can do mail order from the website when they get home or sign up for a three- or six-month or year-long sub- scription box. The company employs nearly 60 full- time employees, Weisenburger says, with more in the summer, which is the store's busiest season. "It's a good place to work," says Weisenburger, who started as a seasonal employee and was eventually hired as a full-time employee. The company announced in late June that it will close the Tribune Tower store in mid-August and move to a short-term space at 663 N. Michigan Avenue, be- cause developers who purchased Tribune Tower to create condominiums in the Chicago landmark need the space. The company has not yet decided where it will locate permanently, the Chicago Tribune reported, but company spokesman Dana Rodio said, "We are hopeful we can remain in the North Michigan Avenue area." n Dylan's Candy Bars Continued from Page 1 the store has to offer while imploring them not to touch. "They just had a party in one of our two private rooms," explains Marty Weisen- burger, one of the Chicago store's sales managers. "We host a lot of special events here, and in the café." Customers can choose among a number of themed parties, or set their own theme if they wish, he says. Children's parties feature candy-themed games, while bridal and baby showers feature candy-inspired "mocktails." Dylan's Candy Bar has partnered with Duff's Cake Mixes to create another themed party – a two-hour do-it-yourself cake decorating celebration. The café features finger foods such as chicken tenders and fries, salads and sand- wiches as well as a variety of beverages, including Pop Rocks-rimmed glasses of blue lemonade garnished with gummy sharks. Customers can also sign up for the in- Legacy Snack Brands Among Those Making Big Gains on Amazon Data and sales measurement firm One Click Retail has found that the Amazon's top selling brand Happy Belly fell from its number five ranking to a number 16 rank- ing in the last year, but other brands are showing significant increases in year-over- year sales. Still, says Insights Manager Ohastro Todd, fast moving changes in the eCom- merce snack segment will require snack makers to stay on their toes. According to One Click Retail's calcu- lations, 2018 estimated snack food first- party sales on Amazon.com have reached $150 million, a 33 percent year- over-year increase, of which the top 5 highest-selling snack food brands on Ama- zon, and their share of Amazon snack food category sales, are: Planter's (7 percent); Annie's (5 percent); Pepperidge Farms (4 percent); Jack Link's (4 percent); and Frito-Lay (3 percent). While Planter's and Annie's grew slightly slower than the 33 percent growth this category enjoyed overall — up 20 per- cent and 31 percent year-over-year, respec- tively — they retained their top positions year-over-year and year-to-date. Miscalculations in eCommerce strate- gies are even felt by the eCommerce giant itself. Happy Belly, Amazon's private label snack mix brand, saw an incredibly suc- cessful 2017, which ranked as the number 5 overall snack food brand that year. How- ever, near the end of 2017, Amazon dra- matically changed the focus of this brand: it removed the brand's classic trail to ex- pand into alternative trail mix options. The cancellation of this top-selling product damaged the brand's sales. Happy Belly, having lost almost half its sales. The big winner in the snack foods cate- gory has seen an impressive year-over- year growth of 166 percent. In one year, Blue Diamond jumped from the 11th spot to the 6th spot on Amazon, increasing its market share to 3 percent (up 1.5 per- cent). Other notable 2018 year-over-year in- creases and brands to watch: With an in- crease of 64 percent, Pepperidge Farms is growing twice as fast as the category over- all and moves up to number 3 (from num- ber 5 in 2017). As a brand that is both large and fast-growing, Pepperidge Farms is a legacy brand to watch in 2018. n

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