Burton’s Biscuit Company is targeting sales of $100m over five years after signing a US distribution deal with International Food Associates (IFA).
Although it has distributed to the US before, the supplier said the deal represented a big increase in focus on international brand building.
Burton’s is aiming to tap into America’s $548m premium cookie market [IRI 52 w/e 28 December 2014], which accounts for 12% of all cookie sales in the country.
“With a $548 million market opportunity in the US, this partnership is a crucial springboard for future growth,” said Stephen Carson, director of international business development at Burton’s. “While our existing international presence has built an awareness of Burton’s products, our renewed focus will build our global marketplace and drive success. Working with IFA will ensure we are maximising our US distribution and capitalising on the premium cookie sector.”
IFA President Don Cook said it was confident its retailer network would respond well to Burton’s “iconic products”. “Burton’s ambitious growth strategy marries with our drive to capitalise on this sector opportunity and our extensive network will deliver products quickly and efficiently to market,” he added.
Burton’s focus in the US market will be on its Cadbury range produced under license from Mondelez. This includes Cadbury Fingers in milk, dark and salted peanut crunch flavours, and Cadbury Dairy Milk, Cadbury Crunchie and Cadbury Crème Egg cookies.
The Cadbury brand has a loyal following in the US that Burton’s will hope to take advantage of. In January, there was outcry after legal action by US chocolate giant Hershey’s forced importer Let’s Buy British to stop importing British-made Cadbury products. Hershey’s holds the license to make Cadbury chocolate in the States but does so under a different recipe.
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