Fazer readies UK growth through Angry Birds

Fazer, one of the largest companies in the Finnish food industry by market share, is to launch a range of Angry Birds sweets in the UK this summer as part of its efforts to become an international business by 2016.

Angry Birds

The confectionery and bakery business is planning to launch a birds and pigs wine gum range in July.

Fazer first worked with Rovio last year when it created limited edition Angry Birds for its sweet brand Tyrkisk Peber Volcano.

The business is in the final stages of appointing a UK distributor to help market the product and plans to build its marketing strategy around three pillars; PR, online engagement and in-store sampling.

Pekka Rantala, managing director of Fazer’s bakeries and confectionery division, says the strategy will mirror its Nordic activity. It will, however create localised promotions to appeal to UK shoppers.

He adds: “When we announced the new candy range at the start of the year the demand in the UK on social networks was phenomenal despite people not knowing who we were and whether we’d launch in the region.

“When you go outside of the Nordic countries we are not really known as a brand. The Angry Birds brand can really open doors for us on an international scale, paving the way for the business to launch its own brands in countries like the UK and China later this year.”

The company already has a presence in travel retail in Asia, however its products are not sold in mainstream outlets. It is also considering moving into Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines.

The Angry Birds sweets hit retail outlets in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, the Baltic States, Poland and Czech Republic, earlier this month and the company is planning to launch new ranges under the brand towards the end of the year.

“We’ve really found a soul-brothership with Rovio”, says Rantala, “The advantage of this partnership is that we do have visibility and access to what is cooking at Rovio. It means that we can synchronise and introduce new products based on the new features and games that they’re planning to coincide with launches.”

In 2011, Fazer’s turnover rose by 4.1% and its operating profit was 54.2m (£43.5m).

Recommended

Case study: InterContinental Hotels Group

Josie Allchin

If a corporate website is all about telling a company’s story, then there is one great omission from the site of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) – its sponsorship of the 2012 Olympics. The company’s Holiday Inn brand is the official hotel of the London Games, but with the notoriously stringent rules about using Olympic branding to promote services, IHG can’t actually boast about the fact on its corporate site.