One of South Africa’s leading margarine and spreads brands, Sunshine D, has a whole new look, feel and taste and, complete with its unique new oval-shaped tub, is standing out from its competitors on South African supermarket shelves.
Deon Calthorpe, the Managing Executive of Sales & Marketing at Willowton Group, the family-owned business that has grown into one of Africa’s leading edible oils producers and FMCG companies, said that the recent decision to completely revitalise both the packaging and the formulation of one of its premier brands was already delivering the desired results.
“The most important aspects are the improved all-round taste, mouthfeel and product experience. Changing the packaging was crucial to “differentiating” the product from those of our competitors and also bringing new life into the brand. The new Oval shaped tub that resulted is both iconic and unique to Sunshine D. The new look and feel has allowed us to refresh the brand and bring new energy to it,” he explains.
According to Calthorpe, Willowton is ultra-sensitive to feedback from customers. As a part of our customer-centric approach to building brands, we embarked on a full brand review to ascertain opportunities to grow the Sunshine D brand even further. This included taste panel sessions which provided a key insight that there was an opportunity to reformulate in line with our “Make it taste Better with Sunshine D” brand proposition.
With input from researchers and experts, the company decided it was time for a whole new recipe in order to ensure that both the taste and brand delivered on its true brand promise and continue to build on an ongoing success story.
“Sunshine D is a historical brand that has been around for many years. We have seen continual growth in this brand and with the rebranding and reformulation which has been well received, we can expect to see even further positive growth” Calthorpe says.
“We remain committed to growing our margarine and fat spreads brands and products and will look to innovate further within the category. Ultimately, our drive is to focus on our consumers’ need for affordable great quality products that taste great. Our Sunshine D brand is our premium margarine & spreads brand and we will drive continual investment into striving to make it South Africa’s number one brand within the category,” Calthorpe points out.
With renewed focus and energy, we look forward to spreading sunshine across the category and making it taste better with Sunshine D!
Sunshine D’s spreadability will be communicated with consumers via @NowWeCooking digital platforms using the hashtag #SpreadTheSunshine. There they’ll be running an exciting competition and sharing some delicious recipes.
