Pladis reports 28% sales uplift with McVitie’s impulse trial

By Oliver Nieburg

- Last updated on GMT

Biscuit-width display stands, price marked packs and field visits to generate $115m growth in UK biscuits within five years: pladis
Biscuit-width display stands, price marked packs and field visits to generate $115m growth in UK biscuits within five years: pladis
United Biscuits owner pladis has reported a sales boost from a field sales and merchandizing fixture initiative for its McVitie’s biscuits brand in UK convenience stores.

The company introduced its convenience and impulse strategy ‘Better Biscuits, Best Sellers’ initiative in March this year.

It hopes the project will drive total biscuit category growth by up to £88m ($115m) in the next five years.

The strategy is an extension of the company’s multimillion c-store program ‘Better Biscuits, Better Business’ launched in 2014.

The extended initiative from this March has resulted in a 28% sales boost in trials across ambassador and field sales visited stores, said pladis.

Who are pladis?

Pladis-Yildiz-consolidates-Godiva-Ulker-UB-and-DeMet-s_strict_xxl

Turkish conglomerate Yildiz Holding consolidated its United Biscuits, Godiva Chocolatier, Ulker and DeMet’s Candy Company busineses into a $5.2bn global company​ named pladis in June this year.

Display stands

Part of the trials featured a McVitie’s display stand, the width of a packet of biscuits, which pladis said helped stores grow biscuit category sales 4.8%, equivalent to £700 ($914) more per store annually.

The company now hopes to roll out more than 1,000 stands across stores in the UK.

It will also expand its c-store initiative with NPD and price-marked packs.

NPD

New products include a price-marked £1.50 ($1.96) McVitie’s Chocolate Digestive range and a 89p ($0.77) McVitie’s Biscuit Barrel range.

Pladis said the price-marked offer represented a “more competitive headline price”​ and said its new case size - containing three free packs (15 packs for the price of 12) - allowed retailers to improve margins.

mcvities digestives resized
Pladis introduces price-marked packs for its McVitie's Digestives range.

Its Biscuit Barrel range includes classic biscuits ranges such as Custard Creams, Bourbons and Shorties. These come in 250-300 g packs, a larger size than has previously been available for these lines, said plaidis.

Field sales visits

The company’s program has also seen field sales teams paying visits to 9,000 retailers across the UK every four to eight weeks, offering advice on merchandizing and providing displays.

Pladis said the field sales program had achieved a 20% sales lift for core ranges in independent and club stores.

Its field sales teams will now concentrate on offering support for recent NPD such as McVitie’s Nibbles, Jacob’s Cracker Crisps and the new price-marked packs.

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