Cadbury’s Oreo block range has carried Mondelēz Confectionery to a win as SPAR’s Supplier of the Year for 2016, as well as for best product launch.
The SPAR Supplier awards, held last Friday night on the Gold Coast, recognises the partnerships between the international P&C and grocery chain, and acknowledges the successes of suppliers who drive growth for themselves and for SPAR Australia.
SPAR Australia managing director Lou Jardin thanked suppliers for their roles in SPAR’s development, and the support they had shown for the business.
The event was also attended by SPAR International’s marketing and strategic projects manager Niels Dekkers, who shared some strategy and innovation plans that will help to achieve further growth for the company, which boasts more than 14,000 retail outlets worldwide.
A spokesperson for SPAR Australia said that Mondelēz had narrowly edged out the competition to become a standout supplier in 2016, with 18% growth on the previous year’s business.
Mondelēz Confectionery state business manager Darryl Gordon received the award, telling C&I Week that the success of the relationship with SPAR was thanks to SPAR Australia head buyer Cory Nicholson.
“We have traditionally not had a great relationship with SPAR, but we made some moves to start overinvesting in the business, and Cory had the foresight to leave the past behind and look to building a progressive and sustainable future.
Mr Gordon said the Oreo block range, released in April last year, had been the first innovation seen from Oreo in some time.
“It’s actually been really successful for us. Oreo vanilla climbed to be our number four bar in the market,” he said.
“SPAR have been really good over the past 12 months, 18 months, really getting behind the product and putting their communication out not only to the consumers but out to their retailers, giving them a good chance to get behind it and engage with the product.
“The thing about NPD (New Product Development) is that you put out something good, and you’ve got to cycle it a year later, you’ve got to come out with something else.”
It was hinted at that Mondelēz has another NPD in the pipeline which is expected to hit shelves in April this year.
“There’s something really big on the horizon, and it will be going to market in the next 30 days. It will be a huge blocks innovation, and then we will have a reformatting of Marvellous Creations.
“We’ve left that alone for about 18 months, haven’t done anything with it to let that settle down, but we’ll have some NPD coming along. It’s a pretty big innovation.”
Other award recipients included:
Scott Milner of Grove Juice, 2016 Private Label Supplier of The Year.
Scott Milner of Grove Juice, 2016 Perishable Supplier of The Year.
Dwayne Cocker of Coca-Cola Amatil, 2016 Grocery Supplier of The Year.
Santo Laferlita of McPherson’s Consumer Products, 2016 Non-Food Supplier of The Year.
Glenn Halliday of Don KRC, 2016 Promotional Support of The Year.
Darryl Gordon of Mondelēz Confectionery, 2016 New Product Launch of The Year for their product Cadbury Oreo Chocolate.
Tony Wyber of Asaleo Care, 2016 Account Manager of The Year.