Sales slip fuels Thorntons drive

Chocolate retailer Thorntons’ first marketing director, Pamela Langworthy, who held the same position at Dairy Crest, will oversee a new ad campaign after the previous one was blamed for poor Christmas sales.

Thorntons saw a 1.2 per cent fall in sales in the approach to Christmas, which normally accounts for 30 per cent of annual sales. Turnover in the 28 weeks to January 7 this year was down to £58.4m from £58.7m in the same period last year.

Chairman and chief executive John Thornton said the ad campaign in the run-up to Christmas, through Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe, was an altered version of an earlier campaign aimed at boosting daily sales of loose chocolate. He said that gift boxes were not featured strongly enough in the original ads and a fresh campaign is planned for Mother’s Day and Easter.

Langworthy was made redundant eight months ago from Dairy Crest (MW June 17, 1994), along with her team of three marketing managers when the dairy company axed its central marketing department. She was formerly business development director at McVitie’s.