SUGAR CONFECTIONERY: MARS ITR


Tapping sugar’s unboxed demand


Matt Boulter, Category Director, Mars International Travel Retail (ITR) tells Luke Barras-Hill that sugar confectionery has the potential to play a much greater role in travel retail than it currently does, as some of the company’s retail partners are now recognising.


T


ell me about the sugar confectionery side of the Mars ITR business and how


you are positioning the segment in travel retail? Mars confectionery is now integrating with Wrigley, and between Mars and Wrigley we have over 100 years of total confectionery experience. As a result, we look at it from a total confectionery point of view, so of course you have chocolate, but you have also got confections and gum. When you look at the need states of the traveller we do not see them as different. We call these ‘For me’, ‘For us’ and ‘Gifting’, and within them, each of the categories and brands play a key role. We see gum playing a role in ‘For Me’, while brands like Skittles play a


role in ‘For us’ and sharing. When we talk about the category, what is really interesting is when you look globally, gum confections makes up around 30% to 40% of total confectionery. When you look into travel retail,


you see that gum and confections is pretty underdeveloped; chocolate is 90% versus about 10% for gum and confections. When you look at Asia Pacific, you see gum and confections making up about 6%. There is just fundamentally a huge


growth opportunity in the category. In the Nordics for example, you have got a reasonably strong gum and confections business, which shows what is possible. One of the things that worked well for us recently in the region was a joint gum and confections activation led by Extra and Skittles with Heinemann. There is big headroom in the


category globally and also by region. If you look at the shopper journey through the store, you start where the consumer might have a planned purchase. They maybe buy something


Skittles 1kg bag. JUNE 2017


from a wallbay, or it might be more impulsive, for example buying an M&Ms sharing bag from a gondola. What seems to be more


“I think strong brands can play a role across need states, but it is important to recognise their core role and you have to get that right first.”


Matt Boulter, Category Director, Mars ITR


TRBUSINESS 65


underdeveloped in travel retail is the checkout opportunity. In a domestic market, you would see the checkout as a key revenue generator to reach all consumers, either to refresh or reward them during their shopper mission. In travel retail, we see just 6% of sales go through the ‘For me’ moment


Above: A Skittles and Extra activation at Copenhagen Airport.


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