Page 30 - August 2020 Inform (H-F200(2))

GB MARS UPDATE
Given the radical change in shopping patterns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mars business has worked quickly to adapt.
As the weather warmed up in April and May, sales of our ice cream take home pack hit record highs with Mars achieving results ahead of the market in every sector, leveraging the excellent distribution gains achieved pre lockdown.
An exclusive deal was agreed with
Iceland for Skittle Sours which
resulted in the full stock
allocation being sold in
two months.
Another area of change was online shopping.
Customers like ASDA saw their ice cream sales increase from 14% to 25% of the total frozen category due to collaborative work on product searching and online visualisation.
Amazon business is also continuing to grow through NPD launches and lockdown demand spikes, particularly benefitting Mars specialist sports nutrition lines.
Our Mars milk business was challenged as people stopped visiting
food-to-go and sandwich fixtures. However, convenience sales are
recovering and the team has secured listings of non-dairy in
Blackmore Spar, Nisa and the Co-op in advance of renewed
footfall.
The team has also looked at wider opportunities in growth
areas like discounters and new business with spreads in Aldi and ice cream in Farm Foods which are great examples of these positive developments.
Finally we are launching M&M protein bars and there is real excitement amongst our specialist sports customers for this NPD.
PRIVATE LABEL
Over the last few months, we
have witnessed an uplift in
sales of condensed milk by over
300%, as brands struggled to
fulfil grocery demand and
consumers switched to private
label. As people spend more time
at home products that were once
considered old fashioned have
become store cupboard favourites and staples for many consumers.
Jelly Block also experienced considerable sales growth in Aldi and Asda, with Asda rolling the price back on their private label jelly, contributing to a 150% sales uplift.
Demand for the Farmlea
range has also increased, with Farmfoods now stocking our Farmlea Rice Pudding “bigger pack better value” and Aldi ROI listing our new low-fat Rice Pudding. We are also exploring
SHS Sales & Marketing
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