Following successful test marketing in its home market, Austria, cult-favourite confectionery producer Pez International is commencing the European roll-out of its new Pez Soft fruit jelly line in the UK – complete with spring-loaded dispenser unit.
Produced in Austria, the new Pez Soft candies are in the customary ‘lozenge’ shape familiar to all Pez fans, and are available in cherry, raspberry, orange and apple flavours.
Made using natural flavouring and colouring agents, and gluten and lactose free, Pez Soft is packaged in 100g packs, or in a 20g refill size when purchased in a blister pack presentation with a Pez Soft ‘game’ dispenser.
“This is a real innovation,” says the company’s marketing manager Gabriele Hofinger. “So far we have had excellent feedback from our customers [and] the responses from our core target group have exceeded our expectations as well.”
Pez Soft was first launched on the Austrian market in August 2011 and has since moved out across the trade, targeting primarily older children in the 6-15 year-old bracket.
As well as serving as storage for the sweets, the Pez Soft dispenser – available in blue, green, pink or grey – is “part game”, says Hofinger. Once filled, an individual sweet can be shaken into a spring-loaded mechanism and ‘fired’ out.
On its first international presentation at the ISM confectionery exhibition in Cologne at the end of January, Pez Soft was awarded third prize in the show’s New Product Showcase innovation award. “We have had a great deal of interest from the German TV channels,” says Hofinger.
UK distribution will begin in the country’s south-west region through distributor Bon Bon Buddies, and further launches for 2012 are under discussion.
At the ISM show, Pez International also announced the launch of a “completely new product line” in 2012 – compressed sherbet candies under the sub-brand Pez Fizzy.
New comic heads for the standard Pez dispenser this year will include the characters Manny, Diego and Sid from the Ice Age family movie franchise – set for a fourth release in 3D this summer.
Pez Soft with dispenser, blister packs New Pez Soft loaded in dispenser
