New products ready for barbecue season
Swedish Match is developing its product range in the Match business area by launching new products bearing the Solstickan brand name. Initially, the business area only sold matches. Then a couple of years ago, fire-lighters were added, followed just over a year ago by firelogs. Now it is the turn of the grill bag and disposable grill. They were launched under wellknown brand names in each country where they will be sold - Solstickan in Sweden, Nitedals in Norway, Tordenskjold in Denmark and Sampo in Finland.
"Sixty percent of Sweden's population are aware of the Solstickan Fund. Awareness is greater among older people than in the younger age group. By launching the new Solstickan products, we are hoping to make the Solstickan Fund better known," says Rolf Byberg, head of match sales in Swedish Match's North Europe Division.
The grill bag was successfully test-sold in Sweden and Denmark during summer 2002 and is now being launched in these markets. By using the grill bag, which is laid directly on the grill, the problem of getting soot on your hands and clothes is avoided, and there is no need to use barbecue lighter fluid, since the briquettes in the bag are impregnated with environmentally friendly odorless paraffin.
"All you have to do is place the bag on the grill and light it. This clean and practical concept is new in the Nordic region, so it has no direct competitors," says Rolf Byberg.
THE DISPOSABLE GRILL will be test-sold in the Swedish and Danish markets during the coming summer, and hopefully launched during 2004. It is sold in a dust-free and odorless packaging that is simple to store in the boat, car or house trailer. What distinguished Swedish Match's disposable grill from other disposable grills is that the coals are already impregnated and that the grill has stable supports and a sturdy grill.
Since about a year ago, the Solstickan family also includes the Braskubben firelog. Firelogs are an ideal substitute for ordinary wood in open fireplaces, wood-burning stoves and tiled stoves. The firelog produces no radiant heat and no dirty ash -
only a soothing, quietly flickering flame.
Unlike the barbecue products, the Braskubben firelog has its high season in the winter. What the new products have in common is that they are slightly more expensive, but significantly simpler to use, than their competitors. And of course, the fact that each product sold generates income of SEK 0.20 for the Solstickan Fund.
The new Solstickan products will be sold in larger supermarkets and at service stations.
