The brand story
Much of DKSH Grocery Connect’s value for our partners is in recognising category gaps and retail opportunities, particularly making the most of opportunities as they arise. As a marshmallow, Sshmallows was a product that most would have placed in the confectionary category. It seems obvious, no?
The trouble with this idea was that the space was already crowded and noisy with well-known brands of strong heritage, not allowing for much opportunity for a newcomer. Instead, we looked to the baking category as an alternative channel for a marshmallow, noticing that that there wasn’t much existing competition, creating a unique opening for a new brand to own this niche space.
The brief
How did this opportunity come about?
Much of DKSH Grocery Connect’s success has been built off the back of great relationships. When a gap opened up in the baking category, a buyer was quick to contact DKSH Grocery Connect to see what we could supply. We knew Sshmallows was the answer. Through our nimble operations and strong networks, we were able to source and place Sshmallows in the category gap and the product was on the shelf in mere weeks.
Sshmallows is a mini mallow, a gorgeous sweet bite that captures the imaginations of kids who love to cook, making a gorgeous addition to rocky road, birthday cakes or a fun way to decorate plain biscuits. We later tailored Sshmallows’ packaging to better fit its personality as an old school baking companion, inviting people to invoke fond memories of childhood afternoons when they bake old favourite recipes.
Our work together
We’re thrilled to say that this insight paid off. Sshmallows is one of our best performing products in terms of units per store per week, and is now the number one baking category mallow in Woolworths. We look after everything from demand planning, logistics, importing, new product development, account management, and promotional planning.
We often rotate the flavours (but always keep our traditional pink and white mallows) to keep things interesting, encouraging people to try ways of baking at different times of year. Demand planning is crucial with this product. Picture the festive season and Aussie’s love of a classic Rocky Road, then everyone goes on diets and swears off any kind of baking… until Easter of course, when there’s a surge in home style cooking! Thankfully this is what we do best, forecasting tastes and catering accordingly.
We also work with this very capable manufacturer to look for either private label, new product development or new category opportunities as they arise, like a recent collaboration with Coles, where we launched Sshmallows in a tin for the hot chocolate category.
