Crunchie cost cutting suspicions

[paulham]

Cadbury has been accused of cutting costs by removing the more expensive chocolates from its popular Heroes selection tub.

Customers have argued that the decision to remove Dreams and Crunchies is a result of the credit crunch.

One customer on the reviewcentre.com site wrote: "Please do not go down the cheap route by putting toffee/choc (eclairs) into the tin."

But Cadbury has said the selections available in variety tubs were often changed and the company had decided to replace the chocolates with Bournvilles and toffee Eclairs last year, long before the economic downturn.

Last year Time Outs and Picnics were removed from the tubs as it said they were the least popular and "tended to be the ones which were left at the end".

Alex Harrison, a Cadbury spokeswoman, said the changes have been made in a response to the popularity of dark chocolate.

She said research shows white chocolate has become a "specialist" choice of only 2% of consumers, but 8% of Britons like dark chocolate and 90% preferred milk chocolate.

She said: "Quite a lot of it is to do with cost, as well, but ultimately going for the mass appeal is as important."

http://fdin.co.uk/news/index.php?type=related&news_article_id=18759407

Why don't Cadbury do a "Pick 'n' Mix" selection then?
It would be good for choice and interesting to see what customers actually buy most of.

[smurfboy]

Dream and Picnic were my faves - but then I'm awkward!

[netbuddy]

...
Why don't Cadbury do a "Pick 'n' Mix" selection then?
It would be good for choice and interesting to see what customers actually buy most of.

The problem with company's like cadburys is that they try to out do the competition, the battle for countline space is very competitive and product placement has allot to do with the turn over. Next time your in a shop like a news agent, check out the sweet & chocolate products that are closest to the till, that indicates that the shop owner got a good deal from that company / manufacturer.

So when people like cadburys reps are out and they sell to a shop keeper a K's woth of business, this distorts the sales figures and product lines that appear to not sell get removed because of the company's own and competitors trading practices.

Basically they're shooting themselves in the foot. If they took a step back and looked at the bigger picture, they would actually find that most of their product lines sell really well, what screws things up is when the reps write business and start giving good prices on popular lines, of course Mr Shop keeper is going to shell out a wedge because he / she can see that they will be making their return and more of it.

In reply to the quoted text, I whole heartedly agree with that one, its a shame that these manufacturers don't do this type of research rather than to rely on sales figures that are distorted by the offers that they give to shop keepers and retail outlets.

[oldspice]

I heard a report about this on Radio Four (yes, really, R4!) and the man from Cadburys admitted that when they took strawberry and orange creams out of Roses a few years ago 'there was a riot with people ringing us and writing to us in anger'. This shows that cadbury do not have a clue what their customers want and enjoy.

Everybody I have asked would rather have a Crunchie than a bar of Bournville. Everyone I asked thought that eclairs have no place in a box or tin of Heroes. Like everyone else, Cadbury will probably be experiencing the effects of the economic downturn - so why can't they be honest and admit this?

[kevvosa]

I've given up on the likes of Roses, Heroes, Celebrations and Quality Street. I had a mixed box of Lindor instead this year.

[Forth Bridges]

netbuddy  if you look at most of the swwet counter there will be highlighting "Mars" products

that because "mars" company is the only one that does Sweet counter things any more

[netbuddy]

@623058, that is exactly my point, the shop keeper got a good deal through Mars.

Traditionally Cadburys want a hell of allot of turn over that they want to tie the shop keeper too. This means that Mars can easily under cut them. When I worked for a wholesaler, we knocked out more mars countline displays than Cadburys despite us having more turnover in cadbury CDM, etc.

Because these display units are expensive, it makes sense to tie the client to a large repeat order.

Cigarette vendors all operate in the same fashion.

Lets face it, if you were a shopkeeper and Cadburys rep offered you a countline display for a guranteed £5k of business in a year and then the Mars rep walked in and offered you a countline display unit for £2k a year business... which one would you go for?

[paulham]

Mars. I like Galaxy caramel over Cadbury's one.
Now if they were to offer me a few boxes of Mars Midnights,.............WELL!

[bounty hunter]

At least Mars don't have share holders to worry about.  I expect they will continue to do well, while Cadbury's etc suffer in the slump.

[paulham]

Mmm, yes, I can see that.
Cadbury's Slump: partially melted chocolate reformed with whatever crap we could find on the floor.

[loulou]

slump is an anagram of plums

[paulham]

Lets NOT go there......

[loulou]

chocolate covered plums?

[paulham]

What do dried plums taste like?

[loulou]

raisins