Heineken launches new product called Charli

Dutch brewer Heineken has announced it is about to launch a new alcoholic drink with the brand name Charli. The new drink will be based on both cider and beer, and also contains sparkling water. The alcoholic content will be 5% and the new drink will be available in both bottle and draught.

According to the brewer the new product is an alternative to beer and wine. The product is a further attempt to attract new consumers to the beer market. Just as is the case with the successful Rosé beer (Wieckse Witte), Charli will be less bitter and more accessible for non-beer drinkers.

Heineken will be testing Charli in September and October in seventeen bars in Amsterdam and Deventer. If all goes well, Charli will be launched throughout the Netherlands in the spring of 2008.

Take a first peek at the Charli website (in Dutch).

Li-Ning opens second store in the Netherlands

The Chinese sporting goods retailers Li-Ning, will open a second store in the Netherlands this year. The retailer already has one store in Maastricht and will soon open the second outlet in Almere. According to the retailer the chain has a 14% share of the sporting goods market in its home market China. This makes the Li-Ning brand the biggest sports brand in China next to Adidas.

The Maastricht store opened on the first of April this year and according to the distributor the store has done very well. The company is also trying to establish itself in other European countries. The brand sponsors the Swedish and Spanish Olympic teams. The ambition for the Benelux is to open twenty more stores over the next five years.

Heinz brand enters new category with chilled juice drink

Heinz has launched a new brand called Heinz Sunshine. The product is a chilled fruit drink and comes in two different flavours : Forrest Fruit/Tomato and Citrus/Tomato. It is the first time the company has launched a fruit drink with the heinz brand name. The company already has much experience in this category in the Netherlands though. The company owns two major Dutch fruit beverage brands: Roosvicee and Karvan Cevitam.

Chilled fruit drinks is one of the fastest growing categories in Dutch retail and Heinz thinks that with Heinz Sunshine it can bring something new to the category. The fruit drinks contain tomatoes which are a natural source of lycopene.

The product comes in a cluster pack with three 150ml bottles. The advised unit price is EUR2.15.

Belgian retailer Colruyt opens first Dutch supermarket

Belgian retailer Colruyt has entered the Dutch market. The company opened a Bio-Planet organic supermarket in Eindhoven (Southern part of the Netherlands). The Bio-Planet is the first time Colruyt ventures into the Dutch market.

The Bio-Planet supermarket in Eindhoven has a product range of 5,000 different products and sells both food and non-food items. The Bio-Planet outlet has a lot of similarities with the well known Colruyt discount supermarkets. The Dried processed food items for instance are displayed in high metal shelves. All food items are organic and all non-food items are produced in an environmentally friendly way.

IKEA builds hotel in Delft

Furniture and furnishings retailer IKEA has started work on a hotel in the City of Delft. The hotel is a partnership between IKEA and hotel chain Golden Tulip. The hotel will be open to the public, but will be mainly used to house IKEA franchisers and employees.

IKEA has one of its main international training centers in Delft and this outlet is host to IKEA people from all over the world. Annually around 1,500 people come to Delft to be trained to improve the performance of their own IKEA outlet. IKEA Delft is the biggest IKEA store in the Netherlands and is currently being renovated to extend retail space even further.

IKEA Delft is the only Dutch store that is not part of the IKEA Nederland organisation, but is directly owned by the IKEA Systems BV (the international "parent" company).

Furniture retail underperforms in first six months

According to figures by the Dutch trade association for furniture and furnishings retailers (CBW), the sector underperformed in the first six months of 2007 compared to total Dutch retail. In the first half year of 2006 the sector achieved 6% growth in turnover. In the first two quarters of 2007 growth was only 1.7% according to the latest CBW data.

The performances vary between several sectors within the furniture and furnishings market though. independent retailers that operate in the higher segments of the markets are doing very well. The same goes for retailers that are located at so called furniture boulevards.

Other sub-sectors such as hard wood flooring specialists and kitchen specialists are not doing so well. They suffer because of the relatively low number of newly build houses that were realised in 2007.

Nivea continues to innovate

German skin care brand Nivea is the leading brand in skin care in the Netherlands and continues its high pace of new product development. Two decades ago Nivea was mostly known as a simple hand creme to most Dutch consumers, but the brand has been developed by Beiersdorf into a brand that offers a wide array of both mainstream and highly specialised skin care products.

Its newest addition to the Nivea range is an example of the new generation of specialised skin care products. Nivea DNAge Zone Action is a facial skin care product that is especially designed for the forehead, jaw line and areas around the nose and lips. The most active ingredients in this products are folic acid and creatine.

NIVEA DNAge Zone Action is also available as body creme and hand creme.

Another Danish Fashion retailer enters Dutch market

The Danish fashion brand Staff opens its first brand store in the Netherlands next week. The Danish brand already was present in the Dutch fashion market as parts of its collection was available at roughly 60 outlets throughout the Netherlands. The new store in Hoorn is the first Staff store that will carry almost the whole Staff clothing range.

With the arrival of Staff the Danish fashion retailers are extending their share of Dutch clothing retail. Other Danish clothing brands such as Vero Moda, ONLY and Noa Noa have been successful in the Dutch market for several years now.

Grocery prices expected to rise

According to leading trade magazine Distrifood, the prices of several grocery categories are about to increase significantly. Average prices of groceries in the Netherlands are extremely low compared to other European countries due to the retail price war that was started in 2003 and only died down in 2006.

Prices of products such as dairy, bread, cheese and chocolate are about to show a significant increase in price though. The price increases that could turn out to be as high as 20% are mainly due to the fact that many ingredients of the major food categories have increased in price. The increased demand for food products, disappointing harvests due to bad weather and the popularity of bio-fuel has increased pressure on the world market.

Leading retailers such as Ahold and Laurus have announced that the follow the developments closely and will react to movements in the market.

Drugstore chain Etos about to open 35 stores

One of the leading drugstore chains in the Netherlands, Etos part of the Ahold Group, has plans to open 35 more stores before the end of this year. The chain already has 465 outlets in the Netherlands which makes it one of the leading fascia in drugstore retail.

The retail chain is very ambitious though and has aggressive expansion plans. Etos can be characterised as a service drugstore. It competitor DA voted best drugstore chain year after year though and this has inspired Etos to step up their game. Etos wants to improve the quality of their stores as well to steal first place from DA.

Dutch consumers willing to pay more for organic products

8 out of 10 Dutch consumers is willing to pay extra for organic food products according to the latest research by Ernst & Young. They surveyed 700 Dutch consumers and found that they were willing to pay up to 20% more for organic products. This was the level that 50% of the consumers thought was a reasonable mark up for this type of products.

Most people (70%) say that they buy or would buy organic food because they think it is more healthy than regular products. Animal well fare and environmental issues are also relevant, but far less important than the health issue.

This research makes sense. It does explain the increased popularity of organic foods in the Netherlands.

Rosé beers major success in the Dutch beer market

One of the major success stories in the Dutch beer market in terms of innovation was the launch of rosé beer. 'White beer' (Hoegaarden, Wieckse Witte) has been popular for many years now. The major brewers have recognised the potential of white beer as an interesting opportunity to attract young women to the sector.

In the wine sector, rosé wines have outperforming other types of wine for years now and these pink wines have managed to convert mainly young women to wine. The major white beer brewers in The Netherlands recognised that this model could also work for the beer sector. This is why the major white beer brands such as Hoegaarden (Inbev) and Wieckse Witte (Heineken) have launched a new variety of beer called Rosé beer.

This Rosé beer can be characterised as a fresh and sweet tasting beer with red fruits which gives it a pink color. Both major white beer brands, Hoegaarden and Wieckse Witte, were successful with their launches in the off-trade in 2007. The success of Hoegaarden was short lived though as the problems in their Belgian brewing facilities, meant that Inbev could not always supply retailers with this new product.

Rosé beer is becoming a popular summer drink and seems to be one of the few initiatives by the Dutch brewers that has managed to attract new female consumers.

Dutch eat more fruit and veg

A small, but remarkable news article.

According to figures by the Dutch Nutrition Centre, for the first time in 20 years the average daily consumption of fruit and vegetables has increased. The average consumption is still only a quarter of what it should be though. The Centre advises to eat 200 grams of vegetables and 2 portions of fruit everyday. The total average consumption is just 100 grams per day.

This data confirms that the average Dutch consumer is more concerned by health issues. Healthy fruit drinks and other healthy or functional foods have seen a dramatic increase in ales over the past couple of years.

Still plenty of growth potential there it seems.

Grolsch brewery signs distribution deal with Australian company

Dutch brewer Grolsch has signed a import and distribution deal with the Australian distributor Premium Beverages Pty Ltd. From the 10th of September 2007, Premium Beverages will handle the import, distribution and commercial activities of the Grolsch brand in Australia.

Grolsch is already active in important beer markets such as the US and the UK and has earmarked Australia as a priority growth market for the brand. According to Bruce Siney, managing director of Premium Beverages, is the premium beer segment in Australia showing double digit growth. Adding Grolsch to their limited portfolio of strong premium brands should improve the companies position in the Australian beer market.

Grolsch will take a minority share in Premium Beverages Pty Plc of 10%.

C1000 first Dutch supermarket to offer OTC-medicines

In the Netherlands OTC medicines can only be purchased through drugstores or pharmacies. Only a retailer that offers the presence of a licensed pharmacist or licensed drugstore professional can sell these type of products.

On the 1st of July 2007 a new law will come into effect that will change this though. From then on, Dutch supermarkets and hypermarkets are allowed to offer a selection of Over The Counter medicines without the need for a licensed pharmacist.

C1000 (part of Ahold NV) is the first supermarket that has announced that it will start to sell OTC medicine. The supermarket has already experimented over the last couple of months in a few outlets with a licensed pharmacist present and will start sales of OTC products on the 1st of July. The product range will consist of 30 different products such as stomach, fever, flu and muscle medicines. Well known brand names that will be offered include Arniflor, Finimal, Advil, Rennie and Sperti.

Facial care products drive growth of Dutch skin care sector

According to the latest consumer market report by Dutch Market Insights, the Dutch skin care sector as a whole continued to show steady growth over the last three years.

A sub-sector that has been doing particularly well is facial care. This sector is showing particularly strong growth. One important factor in the value growth of this sector has been the high average price that is paid for the newest generation of nourishers/anti agers. For other sub-sectors within skin care, such as body care, the influence of the price war has been more noticeable. The more traditional and standard products have been under considerable pressure and private label products in particular have undermined the position of branded products.

If you would like to order this report on the Dutch skin care sector or would like to receive more information on this publication, please send an e-mail to info@dutchmi.com. For more information on this report you can also visit the Dutch Market Insights website:

Dutch Market Insights, Skin Care in the Netherlands, 2007 Edition

This website also highlights all other DMI publications

TomTom unveils new TomTom GO range

TomTom, the Dutch manufacturer of the navigational software has launched its newest range of TomTom GO navigation products. The company is a relative young Dutch company,but already is one of the leading brands in (car) navigation. The international launch of its renewed TomTom GO range took place in Cannes, France. The latest version of the product range features a new slimmer design, making it fit perfectly in any car or shirt pocket. The 4.3 inch touch screen has easy-to-use and intuitive user interface with 3D graphics including building footprints that ensures drivers have an even better overview of their surroundings.

The most notable new feature on the TomTom GO is the map improvement technology, TomTom Map Share™. This technology enables drivers to easily and instantly improve their own maps. It also lets users share improvements and benefit from all other users’ improvements through TomTom's software application. The new software means that TomTom Map Share™ users can contribute and exchange all their improvements amongst each other.

The development of the Map Share technology shows that the company is not only focusing on the development of new appliances,but also sees an important role for the development of navigational software.

Click on the link below to watch a TV commercial (in English):

TomTom TV-commercial

Successful co-branding for Sara Lee and Campina

After a massive success for the co-branded Senseo coffee system with Philips, Sara Lee seems to have another success on their hands with their co-branding project with dairy producer Campina. Their Café Fresco ice coffee product is showing impressive growth in their second year. The product that is made from Douwe Egberts coffee combined with Campina milk was launched in The Netherlands and Belgium in the summer of 2006.

In the Netherlands this was a totally new concept that was first launched in the out of home market. After a successful launch the product now also has distribution in grocery retail. The product was first available in two flavours: Capuccino and Macchiato. In 2007 a third product was added to the range: Café Fresco Light.

Popularity of "Breezers" in sharp decline

In the Netherlands the so-called "Breezers" or alcopops are often seen as a major problem when it comes to underage drinking. This type of alcoholic lemonade and its leading brand Bacardi Breezer became a symbol of irresponsible use of alcohol by young consumers. The most recent sales figures of have cast some doubt over this theory though. At the height of their popularity rough 30,000 liters of this product were sold and according to an article on www.nu.nl, the latest forecast by the trade organisation is that in 2007 sales will total just 8,000 liters.

Despite the decline in sales, underage drinking has not become less of a problem. Critics of alcoholic drinks point out though that other types of sweet alcoholic drinks are compensating the loss in sales of "Breezers" to some extend.

Was Bacardi treated unfairly in this case? Is there similar resistance to this type of product in other countries?

HEMA launches new online store

HEMA, the popular Dutch variety/department store has launched its new online store. This online store is a significant upgrade from their previous online retail activities. The new website is more geared towards direct sales when before the website offered mostly information and a few online services such as photo printing service.

The new website has a broad range of 6,000 different products on offer ranging from toys, childrens and baby products, clothing, food products and even wine. The improved online store shows that the new owners of HEMA are serious when it comes to developing its multi-channel retail strategy.

Click on this link to view the special demo of the new website: HEMA DEMO

Background: HEMA has stores in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany. HEMA online sells its own brand and is known for the simple but attractive style of its products. In addition, HEMA develops its own assortment and most products are meant for daily use. HEMA products are typically convenient, practical and attractive and of good quality.

Unilever takes tough measures

Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch powerhouse, in fast moving consumer goods takes drastic measures in order to improve their financial performance. Over the next four years the company is planning to reduce the 179,000 strong workforce by 20,000 workers. This reduction is part of a Unilever plan to reduce cost by EUR1.5 billion before 2010.

Not only will the company reduce the number of workers, Unilever is also considering selling of some of its activities that have less potential in terms of value growth. The North-American laundry care brands are top of the list to get sold, but other activities are also earmarked for sale.

In the Netherlands it is rumoured that at least 140 workers will have to leave as a result of the decision to merge the separate Dutch and Belgian marketing and sales departments into one single organisation.

Danone about to take over Dutch food company Numico

French food company Danone has announced it wants to take over Dutch food Company Numico. Numico is mainly active in baby food and clinical nutrition. The company has a reputation for its highly advanced knowledge of speciality nutrition and therefore is an attractive target for Danone. With this acquisition Danone could improve its position in foods and beverages with added nutritional value.

Both companies have declared that they are making good progress with the preparations for the recommended public Offer. The intended offer price is € 55.00 in cash per ordinary share. The Supervisory Board and the Executive Board of Numico unanimously support the offer of Danone. The shareholder meeting will take place at the end of September.

The acquisition of Numico is made possible by the sale of the biscuit activities (mainly LU).

Philips enters partnership with Swarovski

Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips has entered a new partnership with Swarovski. The company has been working on integrating consumer electronics into clothing for some time now as it believes it is an important growth market for the future. By partnering with the fashionable Swarovski crystal company, Philips hopes to hit the right note with sophisticated female consumers. The two companies have created a range of fashionable, but technologically advanced accessories such as earphones, and USB-sticks.

The picture shows a USB-stick called Heart Beat that doubles as a necklace. The USB-stick has 1 gigabyte of memory. The products are distributed through consumer electronics retailers and Swarovski stores.

It will be interesting to see how this partnership will work out for Philips. In the past the company has been criticized for being good at product development, but lacking the competencies to market products worldwide. Analysts point out that other electronics companies have been more successful in creating a hype, the obvious example being technology company Apple.

New loyalty programme Heineken called Club BeerTender

Heineken announced that it will launch a new loyalty programme for its Dutch BeerTender consumers. Another popular Heineken brand, Amstel already is using this type of programme called SuperPingels. This Amstel programme revolves around football. Club BeerTender, is a free membership and at first new members will receive a so called silver membership. This will give them product discounts and Heineken accesories. They also get easier access to special Heineken sponsored events. Consumers can upgrade to a Gold membership which will get them even more perks.

Marketing manager Floris Cobelens explained in Adformatie magazine that the market for BeerTender had reached a new level of maturity. This means a change of focus in marketing efforts from reaches new users to improving loyalty with existing users.

Very interesting development. Is the BeerTender concept in other countries ready for this type of approach? Will direct competitors Philips and Inbev, introduce a rival Club?

Danish furniture retailer Jysk opens 8 more stores

Danish furniture retailers Jysk seems to be doing well in the Netherlands. The retailer announced that it plans to open 8 more stores in the Netherlands within the next 6 months. This means that the retailer will then have 21 outlets in the Dutch market. The first new stores to be opened are locating in Zutphen and Drachten (two provincial towns in the East and North of the country).

The store in Drachten will have 1,400 square metres of floor space. The store will offer furniture and furnishing for the bedroom, bathroom, living room and outside seating areas.

Jysk entered the Dutch market just last year and opened its first four outlets in September 2006.

www.jysk.nl

DIY Retailers recovered in 2006 after difficult period

The newest market report of Dutch Market Insights on DIY retailing reports states that in 2006 the sales value of DIY/Hardware retailers finally showed growth again after three years of decline. The overall economic conditions in the Dutch market improved considerably and this had a positive impact on DIY/Hardware retail. Not all DIY/Hardware retailers profited from this turnaround of the market though. The shift in sales from specialist retailers to the big DIY retailers continued as more and more Dutch consumers prefer the option of one stop shopping over the expertise and specialized product ranges of the DIY/Hardware specialist retailers.

The Dutch Market Insights website offers a free executive summary of this report:

DIY Retailing Dutch Market Insights

'AH to go' opens outlet at national airport

Leading grocery retailer Albert Heijn (AH, part of Ahold Group), has opened one of its smaller convenience 'AH to go' grocery stores at Schiphol. These convenience stores are located at high traffic locations such as train stations, subway stations, hospitals, malls et cetera.

This particular outlet not only targets the travellers that visit the airport or Schiphol train station, but also the 26,000 employees of the national airport.

AH to go stores give a lot of space for visitors to move around as these stores need to handle large quantities of shoppers at times during the day. The store stocks some essential grocery products, but its main focus is on fresh food products such as chilled juices, salads, lunch products and ready meals.

source: Distrifood

H&M launches catalogue in the Netherlands

Sligthly older news, but still very interesting for an international audience.....

Earlier this year H&M launched a catalogue with its complete collection. The catalogue consists of no less than 324 pages and consumers can order the catalogue through the H&M website. Consumers that were already receiving the H&M newsletter automatically receive the catalogue through the mail.

The Netherlands is the first country outside Scandinavia were the company has launched this particular service.

A spokesperson for the company explained in Dutch newspaper Algemeen Dagblad, that the catalogue is not a substitute for the online store that was launched in August 2006. These two service are also not intended to replace any stores in the Netherlands. According to the article Germany is one of the next countries were a roll out of the catalogue is considered.

Dutch distant selling reaches EUR3.7 billion

According to the Dutch trade association for distance selling (Thuiswinkel.org), the total distant consumer sales in the Netherlands grew to EUR3.7 billion in 2006. This is an impressive 13.2% improvement over the total for distant selling activities in 2005.

The internet is responsible for the majority of distant sales and had a total value of EUR2.82 million in 2006. This is an 28% improvement over the previous year. According to the association one major factor in the success of online retail is the fact that the Dutch online population keeps on growing. In 2006, 64% of the Dutch population was online, while the year before this was just 61%.

Table Distance Selling Online Monitor 2006
Development online consumer spending in EUR millions per annum:

1998:: € 41,-

1999: € 147,-

2000: € 312,-

2001: € 527,-

2002: € 937,-

2003: € 1.237,-

2004: € 1.678,-

2005: € 2.210,-

2006: € 2.820,-

Source: Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, Blauw Research/Thuiswinkel.org, 2006-2

Dutch consumer among the most optimistic in Europe

According to the Dutch National Statistics Office (CBS), the Dutch consumer ranks among the most optimistic consumers in Europe. The Finn's, Dutch and Swedes are the top three in terms of consumer confidence. Hungary, Portugal and Cyprus are ranked the lowest out of all European countries.


According to the CBS article the European consumer confidence has risen substantially since the beginning of 2003.

Welcome to Dutchmiblog

Dutchmiblog is a forum for everyone interested in following the Dutch retail and consumer markets. The blog will discuss the latest retail and consumer news, profile new retail concepts and highlight interesting consumer research. International traders, retail professionals and marketeers can keep in touch with the latest developments and discuss specific issues with interested professionals from around the world.

Dutchmiblog is an initiave of Dutch Market Insights (www.dutchmi.com), a market intelligence company specialised in Dutch retail and consumer market intelligence.