The Hershey Company is launching its first new candy brand in 30 years. The new candy brand is called Lancaster. Lancaster is a soft caramel crème line. The Lancaster soft caramels will come in three flavors: caramel, vanilla/caramel, and vanilla/raspberry.
The name Lancaster is a part of Hershey’s history. The Hershey Company founder, Milton Hershey, named his first candy company The Lancaster Caramel Company in 1886.
The Lancaster soft caramels have been in the works for the past two-and-a-half years. Researchers have spent these past couple of years doing research on consumer tastes as well as the confectionary market across the world.
For the first time, Hershey’s is taking a double approach with the launch of Lancaster by debuting the candy in the United States and China at the same time. China has become a focus for U.S.-based consumer goods and brings in a good profit for Hershey’s, who already sells some of its candy overseas.
According to Steven Schiller, senior vice president of sweets and refreshment, “China and the U.S. are major focus markets for the company.” Schiller also mentioned that China is the second largest sweets market following behind the United States.
Schiller also added that caramel is a fast-growing category globally, and that it is growing much faster than the chocolate and non-chocolate industries. According to Schiller, “It is one of the fastest growing segments in the food industry.” Soft caramels are also very popular in China.
The Lancaster soft caramels’ target consumers are men and women in their twenties and early thirties. The candy brand will launch in January 2014 in the United States. It has already launched in three of China’s cities. The price range for the caramels will based on package size; one for $2.50 and the other for $4.00.