Rose Confectionery’s Amy Watt on bringing brands into sweets, snacks and freeze pops

Amy, to kick us off, can you give us an introduction to Rose Confectionery?
Rose Confectionery are manufacturers and distributors of confectionery, freeze pops and savoury snacks. We built the business through a constant focus on new product innovation and our global product sourcing capabilities and wide distribution networks across IE and the UK – covering most large retailers and convenience stores.

We operate under our own brands – The Candy Castle Crew, Eezy Freezzy and Sun Exotics – but also work in tandem with our license partners to deliver licensed and co-branded ranges. An exciting investment from Melior Equity Partners is supporting the future growth of the business, allowing us to pursue opportunities for international sales and further new category growth.

Your product portfolio is divided between licensed and non-licensed ranges. What role does licensing play for Rose?
Licensing plays an integral role in the business. We have maintained long term relationships with many of our license partners, some for over a decade. We see this not only as an endorsement of our credentials as licensees, but also as recognition for the added value this can bring to both parties over time.

What makes a good brand for you?
One which is accessible, where we enjoy a regular dialogue and collaborate regularly on opportunities and avenues for growth. This ensures we are always close and connected to the brand, which in turn positively influences our product innovation and marketing – ensuring we are always complementing and reinforcing our brand partners’ presence in an optimum way.

Can you talk us through some of your licensed line-up?
We have been particularly successful ‘leveraging the beverage’ over the years and as a result, food and beverage brands make up much of our portfolio. There are synergies around our core products, particularly freeze at home products. We follow similar trends and as a result our ranges can adapt together and dovetail in areas such as flavour strategy. Nichols plc, Britvic plc and The ICEE Co have some of the most well-known brand names on the market, including Vimto, Robinsons & SLUSH PUPPiE and our on-the-go slush drinks, freeze pops and jellies work exceptionally well with these brands.

Thinking of brands like Tango and SLUSH PUPPiE, how do you ensure the products are on brand when it comes to flavour?
One word: benchmarking! In short, this is the practice of comparing and matching products using various methods within the development process. By ensuring we get as close as possible to the brand’s DNA in respect of profile, this gives us the best chance of resonating with that brands audience – particularly when we are encouraging brand shoppers to shop new categories. Where possible we will adapt to work with existing flavour houses and source like-for-like ingredients to deliver the best results.

“Licensing plays an integral role in the business.”

How important is innovation in your category?
Innovation is critical, although it doesn’t always necessarily have to mean brand new… It could be in the form of an existing product enhancement, innovating with more sustainable packaging, a limited-edition flavour or a new and exciting mould shape for a liquid candy range. We have access to consumer panels and market data, so our approached is measured but we can also be agile when it comes to trends – especially the likes TikTok churns out on a regular basis!

We are always looking at new ways to invigorate and shake up sleepy categories, specifically when it comes to ambient desserts, with a focus on our core values of ‘Doing Good, Doing Different and Doing Better’. This really speaks to everything we do from how we approach innovation to sustainability.

Thinking of the wider confectionery market, what are the key challenges you are facing?
Cost of living continues to play a part in influencing shoppers buying habits… Although more recently we are seeing trends around consumers seeking smaller indulgences or a ‘treat for today’ versus a larger weekly shop which plays to our advantage. Promotions and price marking are ways to address some of these challenges, in addition to always ensuring we present a stronger value proposition than our competitors, as well as superior quality products… Especially with an influx of poorer alternatives from overseas competition.

Focusing on packaging, do you have a set formula for the design side of your business?
In respect of packaging, we follow ‘design for recyclability’ guidelines with a focus on less and better packaging. This ensures we not only meet our own packaging targets but also the sustainability goals of our brand partners.

“Innovation is critical, although it doesn’t always have to mean brand new…”

Working with a variety of brands means we adopt various approaches to design. Briefs are generally collaborative and require input from design, product and marketing teams. We look at existing products for cohesion across ranges, use consumer panels to test or validate creative, as well as market research – always following a set of internal ‘brand standards’ to support consistency of design.

What advice would you give to a brand owner looking to license their brands into your category? What do they need to do to be market ready and commercially attractive?
Presentable data to support the licensing ‘why’, an impressive set of style guides and assets catering to all seasons – and suitable resource to manage demanding licensees!

Finally, if you were that ‘kid in a sweetshop’ we all hear about, what would be your sweet of choice?
We have recently developed a range of Squashies branded jellies and freezables. This required a large amount of benchmarking and meant I got to indulge in the Original Raspberry and Milk Squashies quite regularly… The flavour is so unique, and a softer chew is kinder to the teeth and extremely more-ish!

Good pick! Thanks again!