Peccin's Brazilian treats

ALAIN Wehbe is the spokeperson for Peccin, a manufacturer of candy and confectionery, and a member of ABICAB. Mr Wehbe orients us on the company and its products.

Peccin has some of the most mouth-watering candies available.  Please tell us which ones are currently on offer, and if there are new products to be released soon. 

Today our natural chewy candies filled and panned are the most requested from our range. Regarding new products, Peccin is always renewing the portfolio, surprising the consumer, and for 2016 it will be launching new products and flavors in all our categories.   

One way to position sweets is by incorporating fruit or vitamins, which the company is also doing. What is the market response to these products?         

Some markets love it because they always need new and healthy products. Always fruits and vitamins are welcome and the markets use this approach to increase sales. Other markets, the opposite. They believe that adding vitamins and fruits will increase price and which affects the sales.   

 What will drive the market in 2016?  What support does the industry need to maintain its competitiveness?    

The actual economic situation I believe is not easy for any company. To drive the market we need to be creative, flexible, constantly updating product portfolios, and so on.          An economic situation can slow the market. For instance the increase in prices of raw material, especially sugar, or the currency fluctuation, these in my opinion are the basic issues. Another is if we do not update our portfolio constantly. We learn to be creative during the bad times.  

The support needed by the Brazilian sweets manufacturers to avoid losing competitiveness starts from a reduction of tax. High cost of power and fuel also affect the final cost of the product. Companies need a credit with low interest to be able to modernize their plants.  

When a product is well-loved, the recipe is hardly altered.  Is this true for many of Peccin’s products?   

When the product is a success in the market, you cannot do any alteration, otherwise you lose the trust of the consumer. Years after a product launch, you need to modernize the packaging. But it has to be very carefully done to avoid losing the identity of the product.  We follow this philosophy for most of our products.    

Has the company considered reformulating?       

We can say yes on reformulating when launching new items and new flavors for some existing items. We do not reformulate on successful products.

What is the company’s production volume for candies?       

Our capacity for candies is over 40,000tns, and with new investments happening at the moment will be able to increase our production by 30 percent this year.  

 What is the biggest market for Peccin candy, and what are the target markets?       

Our biggest market is Africa, and we are targeting the US market.   

Does Peccin carry out the entire production process in-house?

We conduct 100 percent of the process internally.