Guylian

Joined Stuart Alexander portfolio    
1987

Market coverage
Australia

Principal
Chocolaterie Guylian
Sint-Niklaas, Belgium

About GUYLIAN

In the late 1950s Belgian chocolatier Guy Foubert and his wife Liliane created a small business called Guylian (from combining their names) producing fine pralines and truffles for local chocolate shops. Wanting to create something unique, they developed a delicately sculpted, shiny marbled chocolate seashell filled with their signature hazelnut praline, heralding the start of a worldwide success story. Still made in the traditional manner with the best natural ingredients, today Guylian is sold in over 100 countries. Guylian is one of the top ten bestselling boxed chocolate brands particularly for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter and Christmas.

Key challenges

• Boxed chocolates compete in a highly price competitive grocery dominated marketplace
• To maintain the premium positioning of the Guylian brand with consumers
• To deliver the required off location display visibility at key seasonal periods while competing with Ferrero, Lindt and Cadbury

Key successes

• Australia is the second largest market for Guylian after the United Kingdom
• Greater point of sale visibility than would be expected of a smaller brand during key seasonal periods has been achieved thanks to a dedicated field force with individual store relationships
• Consumer perception of Guylian as a premium brand has been maintained through in-store promotions and advertising, despite the availability of cheaper seashell chocolate imitations
• Price competitiveness has been maintained and growth achieved through major seasonal period volume deals