Simplifying the fixtures is one of the challenges taken up by Pork Farms Bowyers. The company has recently colour coded its products to help consumers find what they want. All pork products are in green packs, beef products are in red, chicken in orange, cheese in yellow, and bacon in burgundy packs. Category manager Craig Ashford says: "Chilled savoury snacks benefit greatly from the grab and go mentality of the lunch hour, so it is imperative for the Pork Farm's range to be instantly recognisable and we have achieved this through better on pack communication." The Fabulous Bakin' Boys recently invested £1m in extending its premium baked snacks range and rebranding its range of muffins, cakes and biscuits. Its latest foray is another indulgent line ­ an individually wrapped caramel shortcake ­ and its first move into the low fat arena is with a strawberry crispy bar and a flapjack. Speedibake is stepping up its muffin offering with the launch of individually wrapped US style jumbo muffins in branded till point merchandising units. Marketing controller Maggie Dagostino says: "The muffin market is worth around £69m at retail, excluding foodservice, and growth last year was an impressive 15%. This year the market is predicted to grow at around 10% and a sizeable part of that will be the impulse purchase." Unilever Bestfoods is backing its spicy salami snack Peperami to the tune of £2m this year. "Peperami is an ambient product which does not need to be refrigerated," says culinary category manager Mike Miller, "so retailers can exploit this by incorporating it into their crisps and snacks fixture. Our research shows that if merchandised in this way rather than in the chiller, Peperami sales can be increased by as much as 112%." A merchandising unit which clips on the front of the fixture and displays single sticks of the product vertically is available. Häagen Dazs has launched a hi-tech vending machine for ice cream which it says "moves away from a functional dispenser unit to create pure brand theatre". The system monitors when the machine needs refilling, if the freezer is damaged, and raises the alarm if it has been broken into. Delifrance is set to capitalise on the speciality hot toasted market with the addition of cracked black pepper panini to its Provencette range. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}

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