McVitie’s axes BN brand to refocus on Penguin

McVitie’s has scrapped its BN biscuit brand and switched its focus to Penguin as part of a shake-up of its children’s biscuit product range.

The BN brand was bought by McVitie’s in 1998 and relaunched a year later backed by a &£6m television campaign.

The company had predicted sales of &£18m, but according to Information Resources, last year the brand’s sales were below &£14m.

Instead, the company is focusing solely on Penguin in the children’s biscuit sector. It is launching two Penguin products supported by a &£5m marketing spend and has overhauled its packaging as part of the brand’s biggest activity in its 70-year history. The company aims to boost sales by &£10m to make Penguin worth &£50m by the end of 2003.

Penguin Chukka is mini pieces of biscuit, caramel and chocolate which comes in a tube with a flip top. The other product, Penguin Splatz, is chocolate and vanilla flavoured cream between two crispy chocolate biscuits. The products, which will be on shelves by May, will be supported by a television campaign and press advertising created by Publicis. Samples of the two lines will be handed out at skateboard events.

The product’s packaging on its core chocolate biscuit brand has been redesigned by JKR and 28 designs featuring jokes and strange facts will be added to the packaging.

Recommended