ADVERTISING/MARKETING: The management buy-in at Nestlé sees six of the Republic's best-known brands moving out of a global marketing environment into a purely local one. Chef, Fruitfield, Silvermints, Double Centre, Scots Clan and Yorkshire Toffee are the brands that came with the estimated €20 million buy-in.
Mr Michael Carey, the management director of the newly established Fruitfield Food, says it is its intention to actively support each of the brands.
It's an uneven portfolio. While the six are well known, only the food brands Chef and Fruitfield show much evidence of being actively marketed in recent years.
The Chef brand in particular has experienced steady growth, following a relaunch this year with product innovation, supported by strong distribution and ongoing advertising support.
"It's true that some of the brands haven't had a huge amount of attention in recent times," says Mr Carey.
"That was absolutely the right thing for Nestlé to do because they had made the decision to concentrate on the Kit Kat and Nescafe brands."
The marketing support clearly has worked as, according to Mr Carey, Fruitfield and Chef have close to 50 per cent market share in their categories. The same cannot be said for the confectionery brands.
Nestlé's investment in Kit Kat in both the UK and Irish markets is in marked contrast to the fate of the confectionery brands that Fruitfield will now be trying to reinvent.
It's difficult to imagine brands as dusty and old-fashioned as Double Centres, Yorkshire Toffee and Scots Clan.
"They're good products," says Mr Carey, "but there hasn't been any product innovation in them for years." Nor has there been much advertising support. The biggest issue for small brands is distribution and maintaining that distribution.
According to Mr Carey, it is likely that to secure that distribution in the crowded confectionery market, Fruitfield Foods will enter a distribution agreement with another Irish confectionery company.
The move from global to local will see a different type of marketing strategy.
Mr Carey previously worked as managing director of Kellogg's UK and Ireland. He has also worked for Northern Food Group which owns Batchelors, Green Isle Foods and Fox's and Group Danone on Jacob's Biscuits and Evian/Volvic.
The key difference, he says, will be the freedom to act entirely locally.
For international brands, there are always issues regarding other markets. How that translates for the consumer is often in badly dubbed foreign-made television advertising and uncertain availability of product lines.
Leo Burnett (formerly CDP) has been the advertising agency for Chef and Fruitfield but the buy-in does not commit the new company to stay with that agency.
The official hand-over of the brands to the new company occurs next week and then the new management team will begin a review of each brand.
There are no plans to take on an advertising agency. However, as there is a commitment to "treating the brands seriously" it is reasonable to assume that developing a relationship with an agency will be part of Fruitfield Food's strategy in the near future.
bharrison@irish-times.ie
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