Baileys has continued its brand licensing spree, adding a co-branded popcorn with Joe & Seph’s alongside a toffee popcorn flavoured liqueur.
Baileys Toffee Popcorn Movie Night (rsp: £17/70cl) offered “buttery aromas with the sweet creaminess of Baileys”, said the brand. It has rolled out in major retailers including Asda, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Morrisons and Tesco.
Meanwhile, Joe & Seph’s Baileys Popcorn (rsp: £4/70g) combined “gourmet popcorn, coated in smooth caramel with the unmistakable taste of Baileys Irish Cream”.
It will launch via DTC on 22 April before rolling out into retail at a later, unspecified date.
The launches mark the first time Baileys has debuted both an innovation in booze and a licensed product in tandem.
“As a liquid treat alcohol brand, we need to be interesting, innovative and vibrant to keep our customers, but also our consumers, interested,” said Declan Hassett, licensing manager at Baileys brand owner Diageo. “Joe & Seph’s was a brand that we really liked and spoke to a number of times over the years about developing products for.
“When this launch came up from our innovation team, we thought this was the ideal time to partner with them.”
Baileys’ branding spree
The NPD is the latest in a slew of Baileys-branded confectionery products to roll out across grocery in the past few years. Other recent Baileys innovations have included Nespresso-compatible pods launched last year with Grind, and Carte D’Or Baileys ice cream, added in November 2023.
Baileys licensed products were “hugely popular with adult consumers, with more than four million licensed products sold in the UK last year”, said Diageo, citing Kantar data.
Licensed products helped “take the distinctive taste and quality of the original product into new areas of the store”, driving incremental sales for retailers, it added.
Expanding into new occasions has also helped Baileys buck wider declines in spirits – sales of its booze products grew by £13.2m on volumes up 10% last year [NIQ 52 we 7 September 2024].
The brand would therefore continue to extend into new consumption occasions and categories in future, said Hassett.
“Our brand ambition is [for Baileys to be] the number one adult treat brand in the world,” he said. “Whenever adults want to treat themselves we want to be in those occasions.”
Coffee was one category currently being explored for future licensed products, he added.
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