Pricewatch: 12 October, 2018 - Mints

Analysis

By stocking 12% higher than Booker’s RRP, independent retailers are squeezing as much extra margin as possible out of these top-selling mint lines.

And retailers can get away with this because of the impulsivity of the purchase – even the most enthusiastic bargain hunter is unlikely to argue over extra pennies on Tic Tac or Trebor.

But comparing to the multiples, the first thing you notice is the uniformity of the supermarkets’ pricing. This keeps the category simple for customers to shop – they can easily browse the range, knowing whatever they settle on will be the same price. Extra spend is then generated in Tesco by employing a three-for-£1.20 deal across its range.

Tesco and Sainsbury’s in particular offer a very tight range of singles, favouring offering the value of multipacks. This means that you can offer products with a smaller cash outlay for consumers.

Profit checker

Price checker

PRODUCT	AVERAGE UK RETAIL PRICE	BOOKER RRP	CUMBRIAN VILLAGE HIGH STREET SHOP	LARGE C-STORE IN EAST LONDON HIGH STREET	POST OFFICE AND SHOP IN SW LONDON COMMUTER TOWN	NEWSAGENT IN GLAGOW CITY CENTRE	NEWSAGENT IN DEVON COASTAL RESORT	C-STORE IN RESIDENTIAL SUBURB OF BIRMINGHAM
Trebor Extra Strong Peppermint 41.3g	£0.64	£0.56	£0.60	£0.64	£0.59	£0.65	£0.70	£0.60
Nestlé Polo Mints 37g	£0.59	£0.51	£0.60	£0.65	£0.55	£0.60	£0.70	£0.55
Nestlé Polo Spearmint 37g	£0.57	£0.50	£0.60	£0.65	-	£0.60	-	£0.55
Mentos Chewy Mints 38g	£0.58	£0.55	-	£0.65	£0.59	£0.60	£0.69	£0.59
Ferrero Tic Tac Mint 18g	£0.67	£0.62	£0.75	£0.73	£0.55	£0.55	£0.75	£0.68
Trebor Softmints Spearmint 44.9g	£0.64	£0.56	£0.60	£0.64	£0.55	£0.65	£0.75	£0.60
Trebor Softmints Peppermint 44.9g	£0.64	£0.56	£0.60	£0.64	£0.55	£0.65	£0.75	£0.60
Nestlé Polo Sugarfree 37g	£0.59	£0.50	£0.60	£0.65	£0.55	£0.60	-	£0.75
Trebor Extra Strong Spearmint 45g	£0.63	£0.56	£0.60	£0.64	£0.59	£0.65	£0.70	-
Wrigleys Extra Peppermint, Sugarfree 28g	£0.55	£0.43	£0.60	-	£0.55	-	£0.69	£0.45
Maynards Bassetts Murray Mints Roll 45g	£0.67	£0.70	-	-	-	-	£0.70	£0.60
Mentos Spearmint Roll 38g	£0.58	£0.53	-	-	£0.59	£0.60	£0.69	-

Data supplied by

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Pricewatch - Mints

Drive your profits

Suresh Kanji

Family Shopper

Location: Little Hulton, Bolton

Size: 2,000sq ft

Type: neighbourhood

Top Tip

Make sure you position mints in a high-footfall impulse area and place them at eye-level where possible

We stick to the RRP in the mints category, and offer brands such as Mentos and Polo at 65p. We normally stock pricemarked packs of Trebor Soft Mints at 50p. However, if I see a line is moving fast, I’ll push the price up a little. It’s important to balance rate of sale with margin, to ensure you attract shoppers and encourage repeat purchase. When it comes to soft mints, those are more popular with younger shoppers and older customers prefer the stronger ones. We’ll keep mints on promotion, if it is available through our symbol group.

Sandeep Bains

Location: Faversham, Kent

Size: 1,800sq ft

Type: neighbourhood

Top Tip

Make sure you have good availability because it is a strong impulse category that you can make good margins in

We always price above the RRP in the mints category because it is an impulse purchase. Idea-lly, you want to find the right balance between rate of sale and margin. Trebor Extra Strong is a bestseller, followed by Polo and Mentos. As it is an impulse category, I find that our customers come in for other things, whether that be cigarettes or food to go and then pick up a packet of mints, so we have a stand for chewing gum allotted in-store and beneath it lies our range of mints to give it maximum visibility.

Jimmy Patel

Jimmy’s Store (Premier)

Location: Northampton

Size: 900sq ft

Type: town

Top Tip

Merchandise your mints range separately from gum, and keep your display clean and tidy

Most of our mints, such as Trebor Extra Strong and Polo, are pricemarked and have always been our bestsellers. At the moment, Premier has a promotion on countlines, including mints, going for two-for-£1, so that has been quite popular with shoppers in terms of trends. I have noticed that older shoppers generally go for hard mints, while younger consumers come in for soft mints. It is definitely a category people specifically come in for, rather than it being an afterthought after buying something else.

Baz Jethwa

Location: Bolton

Size: 2,500sq ft

Type: neighbourhood

Top Tip

Clip strips are a good way to display mints – if they’re on the bottom shelf of a countline, they can’t be easily seen

We set the prices slightly above RRP because it helps to gain a little extra margin where possible. However, if we are promoting a four-pack of mints such as Trebor, we stick to the RRP. We like to balance rate of sale and margin, because we don’t want to alienate customers by putting prices up too much. But, at the same time, as we are a convenience store, they know they will be paying slightly more compared to a multiple. It is important to be mindful of this, and not raise prices by too much.