Mars Wrigley International Travel Retail is gearing up for recovery in travel retail.

The company is launching new products that meet the needs of traveling consumers following the impact of COVID-19. It includes a tight range of SKUs representing the highest selling products from Mars Wrigley International Travel Retail (MITR), the company says.

“Driving category performance continues to be our overriding strategy for global travel retail, developing new ways of attracting a confectionery consumer base within a very different retail landscape,” said Raghav Rekhi, category director, MITR. “What we have learned from this period is that we must listen to the consumer more than ever before, focusing on their needs and why they buy within our category. COVID-19 has clearly accelerated some of the trends in consumer behavior that we are identifying, and we must respond to that by focusing on key insights to accelerate conversion and drive sales.”

Rekhi said Mars expects the travel retail environment to remain challenging over the next year, and perhaps even longer than that. But long term the company is confident about the category.

“Our aim is to continue providing fresh product offers and opportunities within the airport shopping experience for travelers to find moments to share and enjoy with friends and loved ones,” Rekhi said. “Through this strategy we are confident that the confectionery category can pick up from where we were and continue to gain momentum.”

MITR also is factoring the realities of a new economy into their launches.

“We are very aware… that the new traveling consumer is more likely to be budget conscious, and we are taking that into account within our new product innovations,” Rekhi said. “However, we still need to appeal to those buyers looking for something new with fresh offers tailored specifically to travel retail.”

Some the new products MITR is launching include:

M&M'S Brownie

Home-baking has become more popular than ever during COVID-19 and brownies are a regular favorite. With the new M&M'S Brownie, travelers can indulge in this rich chocolatey treat without turning on the oven. These innovative treats have notes of freshly baked brownies in a soft, fudgy, chewy center, straight out of the 310-gram bag.

With a colorful candy shell, these bite-size pieces are made for sharing; ideal for enjoying on the plane or when you reach your destination – overseas or back home. With packaging design and size that exclusive to travel retail, M&M’S Brownie is will be available starting in June 2021. 

Celebrations and Maltesers tins

These are perfect for daily gifting purposes, seasonal and religious gatherings, or coming together after months apart, which is particularly relevant these days.

The Mars Wrigley ITR tin range is already a strong pack in travel retail, a proven success and ideal for gifting.

For 2021, Mars Wrigley ITR is expanding the offer within the lower price band by adding two more trusted brands in this proven format: Celebrations (165g) and Maltesers (111g). 

Later in the year, MITR also will be unwrapping a completely new line in the Celebrate opportunity that brings the world’s No. 1 chocolate brand M&M’S into the mid-priced gifting sector alongside trusted favorites Maltesers and Celebrations.

This travel retail-exclusive gifting format, designed with the consumer at heart as always, comprises four bright and colorful gift boxes that will put a smile on any recipient’s face.   

Mini Bars and M&M’S Block

AT TFWA World Exhibition last year, Mars Wrigley ITR was delighted with reaction to its new innovations which included revamped Mini Bars packaging for Mars, Twix, Milky Way, Bounty and Snickers brands and the introduction of M&M’S Block for travel retail, following its successful launch on the U.S. and UK domestic markets. However, due to COVID-19, both launches have been postponed until 2021.

The mini bars bags from the aforementioned brands feature a new design and come in a 333-gram bag size to capitalize on the popularity of sharing bags at a great value price (€ 6.50). Ideal for portion control with children and adults, each individually wrapped bar offers a mouthful of deliciousness.

M&M’S Block is already proven to be a successful extension to the world’s number one chocolate brand’s product portfolio.

According to Mars Wrigley ITR’s commissioned research, block chocolate makes up 14 percent of the chocolate category in travel retail, and more 40 percent globally. Interestingly, chocolate block-loving consumers have been shown to spend more on chocolate than the average chocolate consumer.

In travel retail, the 165-gram M&M’S Block chocolate tablets will be offered in four different flavors: Peanut, Crispy (150g), Chocolate and Hazelnut.

Each bar is made with chocolate that encases the sweet, crispy crunch of individual M&M’S.

They feature a packaging design exclusively designed for travel retail (with the exception of the U.S., which will use the established M&M’S Block domestic range packaging). Each bar will have an S.R.P. of €4.50 (price to be set at the retailer’s discretion) and there will be discounts on the travel retail price for multi-buys.