Confectionery

Zetar acquired its principal business, Kinnerton Group Limited, a leading UK manufacturer of novelty and niche chocolate confectionery, on 13th April 2005 for £32.2 million.  This established the ‘Confectionery’ division.  Kinnerton sells its own brand character confectionery, ie. The Simpsons and Barbie, and private label chocolate products to UK and Australian grocery retailers.  Kinnerton was the first confectioner in the world to offer chocolate manufactured in a nut free zone and is committed to developing ‘considerate confectionery’ through offering products that are free from or low in artificial colourings and flavourings.

Kinnerton’s first year under the Zetar umbrella has proved extremely successful. Traditionally, a material proportion of its turnover is invoiced at Christmas and Easter and for 2005/2006 the business experienced a particularly good Easter period with many of its customers.

In fact, Kinnerton’s Easter 2006 season was the most successful ever in terms of sales performance, with Kinnerton being the fourth largest Easter Egg manufacturer in the UK.

Under-pinning the Kinnerton organisation has always been its use of Character Licences as a means of creating ‘instant brand’ recognition for its product range. Management aim to have a balanced portfolio of classic, iconic characters such as the Simpsons, Barbie and Thomas the Tank Engine, alongside newer characters which take advantage of film launches etc.
Examples of this in the past year have been Ice Age 2, Madagascar, Batman and Wallace & Grommit.  Kinnerton has signed Pirates of the Carribean 2, Over the Hedge (from the Dreamworks/Shrek studio) and a medley of the successful characters from the Pixar/Disney Catalogue.

Kinnerton has also been working on developing one of the new pre-school properties, Fifi and the Flowertots as well as introducing Winnie the Pooh and Disney/Pixar characters into All Year Round products.

Kinnerton product is increasingly available in most major retailers throughout the year and the re-assurance offered by our nut free and NAFNAC (no artificial flavours and no artificial colours) capabilities is becoming a recognised advantage of the brand.

Kinnerton’s BRC Global Standard (Grade A) accredited Nut Free chocolate factory has added considerably to the attraction of our products that we can offer with the assurance of having been manufactured in a “Nut Free Zone”. This has helped our sales to many of the country’s foremost retailers grow in excess of 8% over last year.

Nuts and Allergies Kinnerton has been at the forefront of Good Manufacturing Practice with regards to addressing allergy issues. Our Fakenham facility was the first factory in the world to partition into a Nut and Nut Free side.

A letter from one of Kinnerton's customers. Thanking them for their stringent 'Nut Free' environment.

For further information please visit www.kinnerton.com