Candyking aims to regain lost ground in the Nordics with new CEO
In 2014, Candyking lost out to Cloetta as Coop Sverige’s pick & mix supplier after the retailer refused to renew an earlier contract.
Godisprinsen founder takes the reigns
Candyking yesterday (June 29) named Swedish entrepreneur Dani Evanoff – who founded the pick & mix firm Godisprinsen (Candy Prince) acquired by Candyking in 2008 – as its new CEO.
He replaces Fredrik von Oelreich, who became CEO in 2014 after the company pulled the plug on its $76.2m initial public share offering.
The company pulled out after fires at two of Candyking’s suppliers in December that year.
Regaining market share
Bernt Lindberg, chairman of Candyking’s board of directors, said: “We have not had the development anticipated in the Nordics and we see a need for change in order to regain market share.”
Under former CEO von Oelreich, Candyking relaunched Parrots natural snacks and restructured the business.
In 2014, Candyking successfully issued a four-year SEK 750 million ($116.5m) bond as a compromise to finance its growth plans, but remained a private company.
New CEO Evanoff said: ”We have the infrastructure, the brand and soon also the speed to challenge competition for both pick & mix and prepacked products.
”It will be my and my team’s main task to regain the confidence of the Nordic customers”.
Candyking was founded in 1984 and claims to be the leading supplier of pick & mix candy in the Nordic region, the UK, Poland and Ireland. It has distribution in over 8,000 outlets.