On the back of a ‘strong year in travel retail’ Perfetti Van Melle reveals that it achieved double-digit growth in Asia Pacific in 2015, which was driven by core retail brands Mentos and Chupa Chups.

 

Estee Teo, PVM’s Area Manager for Asia Pacific, says: “Sales growth for the region was led by China and Australia. These two countries have helped to salvage sales losses in the Malaysia airports, which were hit strongly in 2015 and unable to deliver the results seen during the pre-crisis days.

 

“In 2015 we focused on getting the right fixtures and, in some cases, new fixtures in the top stores. We also worked on analyzing current assortment and partnering with key customers to maximize the return on investment of their shelf space.”

 

Distribution has grown for PVM in Asia Pacific with the opening or renovations of several new stores in Seoul, Okinawa, Haikou, Taipei, Danang, and more. “We are expecting more stores to open in 2016, furthering our distribution push into new and existing airports and can confidently say that new stores will contribute significantly to growth expansion in the region,” continues Teo.

 

Susan De Vree, PVM’s Global Travel Retail Manager, adds: “With a newly dedicated ASPAC team based in Asia, we were able to invest a significant time on training sales and operations staff in major airports, ensuring these key retail outlets had staff with excellent product knowledge, assortment and category management skills.

 

“2016 looks to be a year of opportunities despite a slow start to the first quarter. However, with the roll out of new products for this year, which have just started to ship, we are enthusiastic at what 2016 has to bring.”

 

New product lines to be introduced at the TFWA Asia Pacific show include Mentos Book; the Mentos Mini Ufo Dispenser; Chupa Chups Sweet Magnet; Chupa Chups Pouch Bag Mini Sour; The Chupa Chups Mini Sour pouch bag; Mentos Now Mints and the Chupa Chups Fun Pen.