Sunshine Snacks is boasting of being a leader in their industry in the local market. According to Barbara Mouttet, chief executive officer, Sunshine Snacks, which is part of the Associated Brands Ltd group, the company has managed to maintain production levels during the economic downturn, maintain market share and has signed a new endorsement with soca superstar Machel Montano to market its products. In an interview on Monday at her San Juan office, Mouttet said the company has been able to hold its own locally and regionally. "Sunshine Snacks has performed incredibly in the local market. We haven't had a drop in production in the local market at all. I would say it has been that way for the last five years, and especially in 2009. The local market performed well.
"You had some markets that were affected a little more than others, particularly the markets that were reliant on tourism and remittances." She said marketing and new product launches were responsible for the Sunshine Snacks retaining a strong market position. "What was responsible for that is our new product launches, especially in the healthy snack area. We also worked a lot harder than any others and it paid off for us." New healthy ingredients were introduced. "We introduced palm olein oil. It reduces high saturated fats. Our products are now fried in palm olein oil and not in oil that creates cholesterol It's a healthier way of doing things. We're trending towards the healthy aspects of eating without losing the tastes. It's been big among our consumers." Mouttet said that some prices of the company's imported products fell over the last 18 months. "We found prices started to go down in the latter part of 2008 and well into 2009, with the energy prices dropping and demand and supply in food. We also experienced that drop in prices of raw materials last year," she said.
"That is slowing building back up. Energy prices are going back up, packaging has started to go back up. We just had a six per cent increase in packaging. From March this year, we will be affected because at this time, we are tied to stocks that we got before prices started to go back up." Mouttet said a price increase in the future is likely. "Our first price increase a couple years ago was after 16 years of no price increase. We did innovative things to keep prices down. We tried to lessen our costs without improvising on our quality of product." Despite this, she said price increases will be a last resort. "We are going to keep our prices down as much as possible, but if it comes to the point where we have to increase because prices continue to go up, we may have to increase, but we always try to keep our prices down as much as we can. And even if we increase prices, we don't go across the board. We probably will just increase the prices that is affecting us the most."
Barbara Mouttet, chief executive officer, Sunshine Snacks. Photo: Jennifer Watson
Exports
Sunshine Snacks' Caricom markets were not heavily affected by the international recession, Mouttet said. "I would say that the only market where there was a small decline was Jamaica. They suffered terribly from their tourism as well as remittances, but the rest of our markets made up for that shortfall." A significant amount of Sunshine's production is exported regionally. "All our exports are regional. I would say about 65 to 70 per cent of our production goes to exports within Caricom."
Branding, marketing
Speaking about the new endorsement with soca star Machel Montano, Mouttet said he has been associated with Sunshine Snacks for decades. "He's been part of the Sunshine family for many years. We felt that Machel Montano, being one of the most prominent, dynamic soca artistes in the Caribbean, is suitable for our types of products. "We started at the end of last year having talks about the sponsorship and the contract was signed a few weeks ago. The contract is for a year and it is regional. "Whatever we choose to do with our products, Machel will be there to endorse the products. Right now we have billboards, we have radio jingles going on, we have in-store material, TV ads and so on." She said Machel is going to add an edge in a very competitive market.
"I think Machel is going to bring a new awareness to the youth. Now the younger generation is opened to so many more things on the market and there is a lot more for them to choose from on the international markets. It's highly competitive." Mouttet said Sunshine Snacks is going to maintain its marketing thrust. "Sunshine Snacks is going to continue with our brand vision and we have been very strong in our innovation in terms of our new products and revamping our packaging and bringing them up to the 21st century. We've just relaunched one of our products called Kornados. "We have quite a number of new products to bring out. So we have been bringing out new products, new packaging, new flavours. Consumers are responding to our products. Consumers like change; they don't like the same thing over and over again."