Mexico's Ricolino seeks global niches.

Chocolate company brightens children's market with fun and fanciful candies

Bubulubu, Clown Pops, Kranky and Monkey Treats could be candies rolling off the lines at Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. But unlike Wonka's make-believe Whipplescrumptous Fudgemallow Delight, these are real candies, made in the very real Ricolino factories in Mexico City, San Luis Potosi and Puebla.

Like the incredible treats made at the Wonka factory that evoked gleeful cheers and smiles from children, so too do the products of Ricolino. Targeting its products to children, says President Enrique Chavez, is key to the success of the 25-year-old company.

Chavez explains that Ricolino is not striving to be number one in the entire children's market. Rather it is directing its energies to niche markets. Leading the line-up are Clown Pops (chocolate-covered marshmallow pops decorated with a clown's face); Monkey Treats (chocolate-covered peanuts); Bubulubu (ghost-shaped marshmallow/strawberry-flavored pectin jelly enrobed with chocolate); and Kranky (chocolate-covered corn flakes).

Because Ricolino is targeting niches, Chavez explains, it is not a leader in Mexico's total confectionery market. "If you measure us as a company probably we are third on sales. But we have leaderships in some of the niches."

Strategies for targeting children are paying off. Of its total sales, 40 percent is garnered from children, 35 percent from teenagers and only 25 percent from adults.

By concentrating its product line on just a few products, Chavez says Ricolino has been able to strengthen its position in Mexico and in its three-year-old export program.

Despite its infancy in exports, Ricolino has achieved a nice degree of success, which began by targeting the U.S. and Canada.

Export operations have grown to include Guatemala, Nicaragua, Brazil, Argentina, Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Holland, Slovenia, Russia and Israel.

Such expansion in so short a period of time, says International Operations Deputy Director Rodolfo Arevalo, is directly attributable to Ricolino's participation as an exhibitor at the principal candy shows - the AWMA shows in the United States, ISM in Germany, Japan's FoodEx, and Intersuc in France.

When asked if he is pleased with Ricolino's venture into export markets, Arevalo says, "No we are not satisfied. We are working very hard to make a much better job on that. We know that we are in a good way, but we have to follow it closely with a very strong effort because we have much more to do."