Cadbury’s Orange Twirl is at the centre of such a feeding frenzy that vending industry wholesalers, Automatic Retailing Northern, is rationing it.
‘I’ve only seen the like of this once before’, ARN’s Allan Walker told PV & OCS this week, ‘and that was when Wispa was brought back to market.’
You may recall that, in response to overwhelming demand, Cadbury announced its decision to re-launch Wispa on a trial basis in October 2007. The results were staggering: Cadbury sold an impressive 20 million bars in the first seven weeks of the trial, prompting the brand to make the trial permanent in 2008.
It was the beginning of one of the most cited and most effective social media campaigns to date, which culminated in the launch of Wispa Gold. A staggering 41 million Wispa Gold bars sold out in a mere 18 weeks.
Cadbury’s Orange Twirl, which is – we are led to believe – strictly a one-off, never to be repeated, limited-edition phenomenon, may never scale those heights. However, a quick search on the Internet proves that a de-facto black market exists for those who are determined to get their hands on confectionery’s hottest product.
‘Sellers are demanding £14.99 for five bars or £30 for 10’, Allan said. ‘We’ve had to limit customers to 20 cases, at a time when one of them asked us for 500. In fact, to satisfy the vending industry’s demand for Orange Twirl, we would have needed 10,000 cases. In total, we got just 780. At the AVS conference alone, we could have sold upwards of 4,000 cases.’
‘The Sun’ newspaper reported on the phenomenon yesterday, (3 October). ‘Shoppers are starting to wonder if Cadbury’s Orange Twirl even exists after struggling to hunt down the bar in shops’, the Sun said. ‘The highly anticipated treat went on sale on September 23 but a week later and fans still can’t get their hands on it.
‘I am starting to think Cadbury’s Orange Twirl is a ploy to mess with our heads’
‘One frustrated fan tweeted: “I am starting to think Cadbury’s Orange Twirl is a ploy to mess with our heads by getting us to search for bars that don’t exist! I’ve looked all over and also have people looking on high alert. Twitter, help me: has anyone actually found one?”
Twirl was launched in the UK 35 years ago, and in 2018 it came fifth in the ranking of Britain’s favourite chocolate bars. This is the first time the classic Twirl bar has had a new flavour in the UK.
A Cadbury spokesperson said: ‘The reaction to the launch of Cadbury’s Twirl Orange has been incredible and the product is in very high demand.’
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More ARN stories are HERE on PV & OCS
More Cadbury’s stories are HERE on PV & OCS