Ritter Sport UK & IRE is launching two new 100g flavoured bars this autumn, Ritter Sport Salted Caramel and Ritter Sport Orange. The famously square chocolate manufacturer is looking to take an even bigger chunk of block chocolate sales and challenge its rivals as it puts its unique spin on flavours the nation loves.
Ritter Sport Salted Caramel contains delicious, salted caramel crisps and crunchy caramel pieces smothered in the brand’s distinctive creamy milk chocolate.
Ritter Sport Orange is made from rich dark chocolate, wrapped around a smooth and zesty melt-in-the-mouth orange fondant filling.
The launch is being supported with a six-figure, 360 degree marketing campaign – the UK business’ biggest to date – with two day time television celebrities kicking things off as part of a cheeky social media campaign (@RitterSportUK on Instagram and @RitterSport on Facebook). ‘Start your love affair with the square’ centers around the new Salted Caramel and Orange varieties, with Ritter Sport daring shoppers to grab a bar, experience their irresistible versions of the flavoured chocolate bars and fall in love with the brand. The ‘Start your love affair with the square’ campaign aims to migrate more middle aged women to the brand and runs in September and October, in print, digital and social, involving PR, marketing and sampling.
Benedict Daniels, Ritter Sport UK & IRE Managing Director, said: “With our biggest campaign to date, spearheaded by two brilliant female celebrities, I am convinced more consumers than ever before will discover, try, and fall in love with our quality chocolate. We’re confident that the new Ritter Sport Salted Caramel and Orange bars, which rival established brands, will kick start ‘a love affair with the square’ as more consumers are introduced to the brand. For retail customers, these launches create a great opportunity to stock premium versions of these staple and much-loved flavours, all year round.”
Caramel is the UK’s third largest chocolate flavour sector after milk and nut, worth around £110m, 11% of the total market, and salted caramel is currently 20% of that. Orange is also establishing itself as a key flavour in the block category, worth £35.2m MAT, or 4% of the total and growing +66% annually, outpacing the total block market’s 7% growth rate.
The new bars have gained impressive listings to date. Ritter Sport Salted Caramel and Orange are available in grocery, convenience and wholesale. Both bars are listed in Bestway, BP forecourts, Dhamecha, Rayburn, SOS Wholesale and T&R whilst in grocery Ritter Sport Salted Caramel is listed in Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Ocado, and Ritter Sport Orange is listed in Sainsbury’s. MRP £1. Available now.
As we approach the final quarter of the year, 2022 looks set to be another record year for quality chocolate brand Ritter Sport. Like for like growth is already projected to be significantly ahead of the market, with brand growth set to be turbo charged by the brand’s latest new customer. Eight SKU’s – including new Ritter Sport Salted Caramel – are launching nationally in Asda from mid-September.
Daniels says, “Consumers simply adore our high quality, all natural, chunky and utterly delicious chocolate made with 100% sustainably certified cocoa. We’re thrilled that Asda will be using Ritter Sport to help drive incremental value into their category, replicating the sales success our brand has returned for Morrison’s, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s to date.”
Ritter Sport continues to significantly outperform the category with an 18 point outperformance versus total block total coverage, and a huge 45 point outperformance versus total block in grocery multiples.
Daniels concludes, “Impressively, Ritter Sport is one of only two top ten brands growing value sales in a declining market. Our penetration is at record levels, with other key category and consumer metrics registering significant variance versus key competitors across value per kilo, value per buyer and frequency. It’s evident Ritter Sport continues to drive incremental value into retailers’ categories, and we remain hugely optimistic about the impact our new autumn launches will have.”
Family owned Ritter Sport is a global manufacturer of high-quality chocolate which uses only sustainable cocoa and 100% natural ingredients. In 2018, they became the first major chocolate manufacturer to source 100% certified, sustainably sourced cocoa, because doing the right things is what it takes to create really good chocolate. Find out more at https://www.ritter-sport.com/en-gb or follow along on socials @Rittersportuk #RitterSportUK.
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