Tunnock's merchandise move takes the biscuit

Deputy Business Editor

Monday 3 September 2012

CAKE and biscuit manufacturer Tunnock's is launching official merchandise for the consumer market through its own online store in a ground-breaking move for the 122-year-old company.

TASTY: The famous Tunnock's branding will be available on a range of merchandise in time for Christmas shoppers. Picture: James Galloway

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GREIG CAMERON DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

It hopes to drum up sales from as far afield as Canada, Australia and the US.

Glasgow-based Orb Group has created products featuring the iconic branding of well-known family favourites such as caramel wafers and teacakes.

The range of merchandise available includes tea towels, mugs, aprons, key rings, cufflinks, beanie hats and even a Rubik's cube-style puzzle. Tunnock's, led by Boyd Tunnock, will receive royalty payments based on sales figures in exchange for allowing its branding to be used. Orb expects to sell around £200,000 of the goods in the next 12 months and is already considering expanding the range to add other products. It is the first time the company, which specialises in corporate merchandise, has taken one of its clients into the mainstream retail arena. An online store has been built on the Tunnock's website, and some of the new products have already started going into a small number of retail outlets in Scotland. Mike Smith, managing director of Orb, said: "Every 18 months or so we organise a promotional merchandise showcase exhibition. We invited the people from Tunnock's along and they liked what they saw. "We followed that up with a meeting where we said: 'Look, we believe this brand is big enough to have its own merchandise.' "So as well as us supplying things for them to give away at their own events we felt Tunnock's is such an iconic brand people would buy the stuff. "So it went all the way through to developing a full online store for them. We hold the items in stock so the orders come through to us and then we ship the goods out." In the short time the online store has been live, orders have been received from America, Australia and Canada. Mr Smith added: "It is starting to look pretty good. Sometimes you don't want to go to gung-ho, but so far we have had orders from America, Canada, Dubai and Australia. "We are also starting to build up the marketing activity as well and we believe it will just grow from there. "It is one of these things that at the start your imagination can go wild. It is better to keep things tight at the start and build it up nice and gradually. "As that happens we can add more products on and bring out some limited edition things." Orb is gearing up for a surge of interest in the run up to Christmas before looking to add to the number of physical retail outlets it distributes to in 2013. Mr Smith added: "We expect the next six to eight weeks to gradually build up then a big surge as we get closer to Christmas. It certainly has the potential to achieve £200,000 of sales and it is adding value to what is a fantastic brand already." Thomas Tunnock started the eponymous company in 1890 when he purchased a baker's shop in Uddingston. His grandson Boyd retains the largest shareholding in the business and its factory in the South Lanarkshire town makes millions of biscuits and cakes every year. It exports to more than 30 countries with the most recently available accounts showing turnover of £32.5 million. For more details of the range, go here

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Tunnock's merchandise move takes the biscuit

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