MITR re-focuses on pure pleasure with its Galaxy brand as it aims for top 10 position in industry confectionery category

TFWA World Exhibition & Conference sees Mars International Travel Retail (MITR) launch the next step in its plan to double the confectionery category by 2020 (Bay Village, Stand B9). Having seen global Travel Retail success for its world renown brand M&M’S, MITR is now focusing on building the category presence of Galaxy. Aiming to lead the way in harnessing the untapped growth potential of the sector, MITR has strong ambitions to cement the chocolate bar's position as a top ten confectionery by the end of 2016.

The fifth largest chocolate brand in domestic markets, Galaxy has played a relatively low key role in the travel retail sector, with MITR only distributing the brand in parts of the Middle East and Asia. MITR’s General Manager, Craig Sargeant comments, “Over the past few years MITR has primarily focused on its leading M&M’S brand, anchoring travel retail development on the proven success and popularity of the colour characters: Red, Yellow etc. With M&M’S now well established within the sector we believe the opportunity for Galaxy to capitalise on the market potential has never been stronger. Galaxy is the biggest pure chocolate brand in the domestic market - a blockbuster in its own right - and 95% of those sales are from four markets only: UK, Middle East, America and China, given that these are the biggest travelling markets,  the opportunity for Travel Retail is outstanding.”

Sargeant continues, “The Galaxy brand is one of the few chocolate brands that has an emotional story. We want to focus on providing both men and women the opportunity to sit down, relax and enjoy life. In today's society, we want everything to move at such a fast pace: our internet, our cars, our work days. The one thing we don’t want to rush is pleasure; we want to enjoy pleasure for as long as possible and this is where Galaxy fits in. Everything about Galaxy screams indulgence, from the way the brand name is written to how the chocolate melts slowly in the mouth. We don’t want Galaxy to be thought of as a ‘quick fix’, we want it to give travellers a chance to have a mindful moment, to reflect on their day, and most of all savour every mouthful.”


The 2016 Galaxy range will focus on four new products:
Galaxy Smooth Milk Tablet (390g)
Galaxy Pouches – Mini bars of Smooth Milk, Caramel and Crispy.
Galaxy Multi-Pack – Six tablets that includes 3 flavours – Smooth Milk, Caramel and Cookie Crumble (4x114g and 2x135g).
Jewels – A mixture of flavoured bonbons of Galaxy chocolate.

“The Galaxy products we have chosen to release to travel retail have been created with two of our category vision concepts in mind – ‘Showing Thought’ and ‘Home Sweet Home’. Both of these concepts focus on ‘gifting’. With its emotional association, Galaxy is the perfect chocolate brand for these special moments," explains Craig Sargeant.

The new focus will be supported by high profile visuals, displays and activations that MITR will tailor dependent on the need of the customer and the airport’s passenger profiles. "We see ourselves as a pioneer in the future growth of travel retail confectionery globally," concludes Sargeant. "As part of our Power of a Smile category vision, Galaxy will play an important role in step-changing our product offer with a much stronger brand proposition."