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Gourmets & Co shows green giftability L uxury chocolate can be eco-friendly too, according to Gourmets & Co, which is showcasing new eco-friendly packaging this year at the show that can be personalised. Valrhona Selection Head of Global Retail Zeyneb Larabi said: “For Gourmets & Co, to give you a bit of background, post-Covid we identified a need to change the approach from a brand-focused approach to a category approach. In our brand portfolio we have three amazing brands – one 140 years old Weiss, located near Lyon in France and well-known for its speciality recipes. It is still made by hand.” Larabi explained: “The other brand, which is over 120 years old is a Swiss brand and from the heart of Switzerland and the approach with Villars is that with other brands you select the cacao origin, but we will select the milk origin to give a different aromatic profile.” Larabi added: “Valrhona is from the Rhone Valley and the brand was created by a pastry chef for pastry chefs, so in its DNA it was the best chocolate for the professional and targets gourmet aficionados.” According to Larabi, with Valrhona it has “concentrated on gifts” and “packaging that you can reuse. We wanted to have something sustainable. We gained the B-Corp certification for the second time which highlights we are one of the best companies for the world, not just in the world.” Basement 2/2-F28 New airline and GTR listings for Tito’s T ito’s International has just achieved a new listing with Aer Lingus to follow its recent deal with Lagardère in Europe. Speaking about the new deals and the brand’s presence across Asia, Tito’s International Managing Director John McDonnell said: “We are doing very well in the region. We have Korea duty free, Singapore duty free, Vietnam duty free. We just want to keep up the momentum.” McDonnell explained: “We are also trying to increase our small size on penetration because we found during the pandemic that people wanted to drink small sizes. For airlines we are going to try to focus on the 50ml format and the big news on airlines is that we just landed Aer Lingus. It’s a big deal for us.” McDonnell revealed that the vodka brand was competing with gin for space within retail and that he was on a mission to show how vodka was more of a volume driver, something to rely upon while the gin trend wanes. McDonnell added: “We try to get retailers to cut back on the space they are giving to gin and increase the space they’re giving to vodka. There’s a disproportionate shelf allocation when you go around the world with gin vs vodka. But when you look around the world at the volume of vodka versus gin, it is much greater for vodka.” Basement 2/2-D11 Tuesday 14 May 2024 28 T F W A D A I L Y