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🍫Lindt & Sprüngli vs. 🍬 The Hershey Company: The only universal truth is that everybody likes chocolate. 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞 Market🌍 The global chocolate confectionery market was valued at $127B in 2023 and is projected to grow to $169B by 2029 (Statista). 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 🎯 🍫Lindt & Sprüngli is all about high-end chocolate with a highly international focus. Nearly 100% of their revenue comes from premium chocolate, and they’re strengthening their focus on direct-to-consumer sales through 523 branded stores worldwide. 🍬Hershey’s, on the other hand, is very US-centered and has diversified significantly into gum, mints, protein bars, and salty snacks with acquisitions like Dot’s Pretzels and SkinnyPop Popcorn 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 📊 🍫Lindt & Sprüngli: Europe: 46.3% (Germany 14.7%, France 8%, UK 6.3%) North America: 40.6% (U.S. 34.8%, Canada 5.3%) Rest of the World: 13.1% 🍬Hershey’s: North America: 91.5% Rest of the World: 8.5% In the U.S. chocolate market, Hershey’s leads with 45.4% market share, followed by Mars (26.8%), Lindt (9.4%), and Ferrero (7.7%). 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧🚚 🍫Lindt & Sprüngli: A strong direct-to-consumer strategy with 523 owned stores in 24 countries and a growing presence in travel retail (airports), which saw 20% growth in 2023. 🍬Hershey’s: Focuses on traditional distribution, with 28% of its 2023 sales coming from McLane Company, Inc., which distributes to convenience stores, Walmart , and other mass retailers. 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐬 💰 🍫Lindt (2023): $6.2B in revenue, 19% EBITDA margin. 🍬Hershey’s (2023): $11.2B in revenue, 26% EBITDA margin. Hershey’s benefits from scale, diversification, and dominance in its home market. 𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠 𝑀𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑠: 🍫Lindt: 67% (premium positioning pays off!) 🍬Hershey’s: 44% (diversification and lower-priced products dilute margins). 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑢𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝐸𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑒: 🍫Lindt: $308,000 🍬Hershey’s: $546,208 Hershey’s streamlined focus on one market and its scale advantage drive higher employee productivity. 𝐌𝐲 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 🧁 🍬Hershey’s remains the larger player in both size and profitability, benefiting from its concentration in the U.S. market and streamlined cost structure. Its strategy to diversify beyond chocolate into snacks, and mints provides additional growth avenues. 🍫Lindt, on the other hand, has chosen to remain focused on chocolate and is pursuing growth through internationalization and direct-to-consumer channels, including their branded luxury stores. This strategy is paying off in top-line growth, but it hasn’t yet translated to bottom-line profitability on par with Hershey’s. By the way, I’m a huge fan of Lindt & Sprüngli España y Portugal! I especially love the Gianduiotti—I can’t stop once I start eating them.

🎉 I am delighted to share a project completed in Power BI .A renowned beverage brand, has been operational for over three years, offering a range of high-quality sodas that cater to various customer preferences. Collaborating with retailers across multiple regions, the company aims to evaluate its sales performance through insights gathered from a Power BI dashboard. The objective is to optimize resource allocation, improve profitability, and enhance future marketing efforts by identifying trends, top-performing regions, and retailers. ✍ Project Highlights/Insights ➡️ Top Performing Retailers: Sodapop is the top retailer, contributing $4.4M in revenue, followed by FizzySip with $2.1M, BevCo with $1.3M, and DreamCo with $0.4M. Sodapop accounted for more than half of the total revenue, making it a crucial partner for Bentey Beverages. ➡️ Monthly Sales and Expenses Trends: There is a noticeable increase in revenue and expenses from May to August, with the highest revenue in July, followed by a steady decline in the months of September through December. This suggests a strong seasonal component, with summer months driving higher sales and operational costs. ➡️ Units Sold by Beverage Brand: Coca-Cola led unit sales with 4.0M units, followed closely by Dasani Water and Diet Coke (both at 2.9M units), indicating the high demand for these products. Sprite (2.6M), Fanta (2.1M), and Powerade (2.0M) rounded out the top-selling brands, showing a strong preference for carbonated and flavored beverages. ➡️ Regional Performance: The Southeast region generated the highest revenue of $2.37M (28.98%), followed by the Midwest with $1.75M (21.47%), and the South with $1.6M (19.65%). The West and Northeast regions contributed $1.29M (15.82%) and $1.15M (14.08%), respectively. This geographical breakdown indicates that the Southeast region is the most lucrative market for Bentey Beverages. 🎯 Recommendations: ➡️ Focus on Sodapop for Future Growth: Given that Sodapop is the top-performing retailer, Bentey Beverages should consider strengthening this partnership by offering exclusive promotions, optimizing inventory levels, and targeting more marketing efforts toward this retailer. ➡️ Capitalize on Seasonal Trends: The revenue and expenses trend suggests that summer months are the peak sales period. Bentey Beverages should plan to ramp up production and marketing efforts leading into the summer season to maximize profitability. ➡️ Expand Distribution in the Southeast: As the Southeast is the top-performing region, Bentey Beverages should explore opportunities to expand distribution and marketing efforts there. This could include onboarding additional retailers or enhancing the presence of top-selling brands like Coca-Cola and Dasani. ➡️ Optimize Cost Management for Coca-Cola: Since Coca-Cola has the highest expenses, the company should analyze cost structures and evaluate ways to optimize production and distribution cost to improve profit.

Functional soft drinks brands, it’s your time to shine. 👉 It was announced last week that Tesco has rolled out functional bays for Vitamin, Kombucha and CBD drinks across 180+ stores. This move from Tesco shows us once again that they’re now in a position to keep up with changing consumer demand, something that’s not been possible until now following the endless disruption we’ve experienced over the last 4 years. Their choice of brands to showcase in these bays speaks to this, with Remedy Drinks's Kombucha, VITHIT and CBD brand Goodrays CBD all in the spotlight. These brands are all achieving YoY growth:  🥤 Remedy: +13.6% YoY 🥤 Vit Hit: +28% YoY 🥤 Goodrays: +117% YoY *Source: Polaris powered by Circana - last 12 weeks (W/E 23rd March) in Total Market We’ll be following closely to see how sales perform not only of the brands included, but also the wider category to see which wider soft drinks brands win & lose as shoppers are given the opportunity to make new choices. Shoutout to Emmet Condon, Gary Lavin and Eoin Keenan on the fantastic results and the opportunities you’ve created! Challenger brands, take note:  👉 It’s not just about you, you need to know what’s going on in your category. When your category succeeds, the opportunities for your brand grow. Your competitors know this… Do you? 👉 The soft drinks category is changing at pace… Can you see this, do you know the implications and is this opening up opportunities or threats to your brand? For both, North Star can help. Drop me a DM to find out how, or get in touch from the link in the comments. 

RXBAR, LÄRABAR, and Planters represent some of the best selling CPG brands by estimated monthly revenue for the food ingredient 'CASHEWS'. Follow @globalsavors for more. #sustainable #groceryretail #foodandbeverage #cpgbrands #groceryindustry #Ingredients #Plantbased #cpg #bfy

Great [licensed] flavors, but what else? While co-branded offerings are still in the early stages, supplement brands will soon need to realize that those licensed flavors alone won't be a big enough differentiation point for a material level of success. Eventually the energy drinks set still needs diversification (or some optionality), and you can’t have the whole cooler be these co-branded products. So, supplement brands (and retailers) will have to think more carefully about the placement and performance of individual SKUs. At the end of the day...it's just another product feature. #strategy #trends #markets #fmcg #cpg #supplements #sportsnutrition #beverages #food #licensing #innovation #productdevelopment #branding #marketing #merchandising #retailing #retail #business #businessintelligence #entrepreneurship #consultants

Good to chat with Rose Marketing Uk for Brands Untapped and to find out how #brandlicensing has helped their company thrive. Always useful to hear from #licensees and get an insight into the role #licensing plays for them & how they manage the relationship side of licensing. #design #confectionery #fmcg #designforlicensing #brandsuntapped