Summer brings with it lots of sales opportunities from ice creams and ice-cold soft drinks, to sunglasses and barbecue briquettes. The latter two items can often be sourced from your car care supplier. Indeed Convenience Distribution Group (CDG) is currently running a promotion on Object Eyewear sunglasses. You can currently get 24 pairs of sunglasses for just £60 (which works out at £2.50 a pair) and a free six-peg display stand. The suggested selling price for the sunglasses is £4.99, so you make a very decent margin on them plus they are available on sale or return terms so if, for any reason, you don’t sell them they will be uplifted and credited to your account in October.

CDG also offers the Bar-Be-Quick range which includes instant/disposable barbecues as well as lumpwood, briquettes and instant light charcoal.

Another summer ’must stock’ is sunscreen, and Nivea has recently launched roll-on sun screen for adults and children. There are four products: Nivea Sun Kids Protection Roll-On SPF 30 and SPF 50+; and Nivea Sun Protection Roll-On SPF 30 and SPF 50+. All retail at £7.99. Also available in the Nivea range are sprays (SPF 15, 30 and 50) and a 200ml after-sun product.

Unfortunately for many people the summer means hay fever, so having products such as Piriteze and Clarityn available, as well as plenty of tissues, is important.

Apparently more children than adults suffer from hay fever so you might want to consider stocking HayMax Kids, a 100% drug-free barrier balm suitable for babies from birth, toddlers, children and teenagers.

When applied around the base of the nostrils, it forms an invisible barrier that traps pollen and dust and pet allergens before they enter the body.

The product is also Soil Association certified organic, vegetarian and has never been tested on animals. Rrp is £6.99 per pot.

To communicate to shoppers that it’s suitable for kids, it has new eye-catching packaging that features superhero characters.

Brand support comes from national press and magazine advertising, and PR campaigns as well as point-of-sale material including posters and leaflets.

Another summer bugbear is insect bites, but Incognito has the solution with its spray and roll-on insect repellents.

The formulations of the spray and roll-on are identical. They are 100% natural and Deet-free, and provide 100% protection against mosquitoes as well as protection against biting insects and many arachnids, such as spiders and ticks.

The Incognito range is supported by national PR and advertising campaigns.

Strawberries and cream

There’s probably no dessert that represents summer as well as a bowl of strawberries and cream. Bakery company Aryzta Food Solutions is cashing in on this with the launch of a limited-edition Strawberry & Cream Muffin. Available from this month, it’s a strawberry-flavoured muffin with white chocolate chunks, real pieces of strawberry and a creamy vanilla frosting. Rrp is £1.09 and the muffins come in cases of 30.

Shane Vaughan, head of retail marketing at Aryzta, says: "Strawberry and cream is a flavour intrinsically linked with summer. While we can’t guarantee ’summer’, we can guarantee that the addition of the Cuisine de France Strawberry & Cream Muffin will brighten retailers’ fixtures and boost sales this summer."

Another product with a strong association with summer is Pimm’s. And, following the successful launch of Pimm’s Cider Cup Strawberry & Cucumber last year, three more flavours have been added: Summer Fruits, Mango & Passionfruit and Plum & Red Apple.

Claire O’Neill, innovation commercialisation manager at brand owner Diageo, says: "The extended Pimm’s Cider Cup range is timed to perfection for retailers, who can now offer customers the perfect patriotic tipple to accompany the British summer time. Summer is a key sales moment for cider and as a brand long associated with everything British, Pimm’s Cider Cup is a must-stock ahead of moments of national celebration including Wimbledon and The Queen’s Patron’s Lunch."

Many brands are cashing in on traditional summer activities with competitions and promotions. Highland Spring, for example, has been back on TV with its ’Anywhere for Tennis’ campaign. Building on the success of last year’s ’Everyone for Tennis’, this latest initiative includes an on-pack promotion giving consumers the chance to win thousands of tennis sets, plus an active holiday. And online, consumers can win tickets to tennis and golf events.

On to cricket, and Foster’s has been named as the Official Lager of England Cricket having signed a two-year deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board. The deal includes all international T20 matches, One-Day Internationals and international Test Matches. These include this summer’s home international series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and next season’s tours by West Indies and South Africa. The deal will be supported by a nationwide campaign across the country throughout the summer.

David Forde, managing director of Foster’s owner Heineken, says: "We’re thrilled to team up with England Cricket. It’s been a decade since we last sponsored the sport in the UK and what a time to start again! England are playing superbly and the popularity of all forms of international cricket is soaring."

Meanwhile, Lucozade Sport has gone down the football route for publicity with England striker Harry Kane heading its Summer of Movement campaign.

An on-pack promotion gives consumers the chance to win a Fitbit Charge HR activity tracker worth £120, every 90 minutes until July 22.

Consumers have to enter their on-pack code online at www.lucozadesport.com to find out if they’ve won.

The choice of Harry Kane to front the campaign is down to the fact that Lucozade Sport is the official sports drink supplier of the England football team.

Finally, music events are big business during the summer and Red Bull has launched a limited-edition Culture Clash can to support its summer gig. The London event takes place this month, and aims to drive ’relevance and brand love’ among 18-24-year old consumers.

Red Bull Culture Clash brings together four new crews and four new sounds. Never seen before ’collectives’ will go head-to-head with their peers in the ultimate showdown, inspired by Jamaican soundclash culture.

All Red Bull cans currently feature a limited-edition design that includes striking visuals of the live Culture Clash, reinforced with in-store pos. In addition the event will be supported by city-wide advertising and sampling.

Red Bull reckons the Culture Clash creates a great opportunity for retailers to get involved and support the event in-store attracting the core young generation of shoppers.


Retailer view

Joanne Thompson, supervisor, Canvey Island Service Station:
"We get a lot of holidaymakers and day-trippers in the summer. We don’t really change our range, we just sell more of certain items.
"Alcohol is a big seller in the summer and we recently added another chiller which means we can chill the bigger packs (10s etc) rather than just the singles and four-packs.
"Ice creams are obviously very popular and we make sure we stock multipacks as spending £1.60 on a single ice cream is not an option for everyone. The multipacks give better value, especially when you can get four ice creams or lollies for £1 in some cases. We always look for what’s on offer in ice cream so we can pass on the savings to our customers.
"The only line that we do add for the summer is sunglasses. We have a Foster Grants display on the counter. There are five different styles and they all sell at £4.99.
"Other good summer sellers are charcoal, briquettes, fire lighters and lighting fluid. We sell a hell of a lot of lumpwood charcoal but we also sell disposable barbecues. We have a country park nearby where you are allowed to barbecue so people buy them to take there.
"We’ve just started selling Calor gas canisters for gas barbecues. We’ve already sold a couple and I think we’ll do really well on these."

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