Swiss herb confectionery specialist Ricola has secured an important listing with Slovenian retailer Kompas Shop following the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes.

Ricola products will be available in the retailer’s stores on Slovenia’s borders with Austria, Italy and Croatia.

The company, which has experienced a 25% year-to-date growth in travel retail so far in 2019, also reveals that its presence in Cannes led to advanced discussions to stock ‘significant volumes’ of its products with other European travel retailers.

ASIAN EXPANSION

According to the brand, there has been strong interest, not only in travel retail Swiss herb confectionery items such as the range of 75g tins and the 125g assorted bag, but also in the speciality instant teas (left) which it  recently introduced to DF&TR.

Ricola has also announced it will directly supply the Asian organisations of its key global accounts Heinemann and Dufry. This is alongside their European businesses.

Andreas Reckart, Vice President, Sales Middle East and Travel Retail said: “Our appearance in Cannes exceeded our expectations in terms of potential new business and it’s great to be able to confirm our first direct order from the show. We also had some great discussions with our existing customers at the TFWA event about how we can further grow our existing business together.

“It has been an exceptional year so far in terms of sales growth in travel retail and all the signs are that this will accelerate through the rest of 2019. It’s a very exciting time for our brand.”