Kinnerton’s Rachel Wyatt talks the challenges facing the licensed confectionery sector.
It’s the start of a new year, one which could potentially bring some serious changes to the way business is done in our industry.
We got the lowdown from some key licensees as to what they think will be their main challenges in 2019 and why.
Today: Rachel Wyatt, licensing director, Kinnerton
“We need a turnaround … licensing/toys seem to be struggling in a world where the core consumer gets younger and where their world gets bigger – more digital, more screen choice, gaming, collectables – while traditional routes to market outside of preschool are becoming ever more difficult to predict.
Within our confectionery space, a fair share of space will be our challenge against the power house brands so the licences we support need to punch strongly above their weight mixed with retails drive to buy safe or known hot.
In confectionery we are lucky we have two seasons – Easter and Christmas – but even in these, consumers are demanding more and more value for money, retail are requiring greater returns on shelf space and licensors still require guarantees in the traditional way of trading when the needle has shifted somewhat.
So the big challenge in 2019 is change, doing things differently and taking a collective view on commercially winning – our consumer has changed so we must all change along with them.”
This feature originally appeared in the spring 2019 edition of Licensing Source Book. Click here to read the full publication.
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