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Exquisite Indulgence

Created in 1958, Guylian makes great tasting chocolates that are

unique and delicious with only the finest Belgian chocolate. Here,
RLI spends some time with company CEO Tom Snick to discuss
how the company is changing to meet a retail world that is in
constant flux after two years of disruption.

orn in 1938 in Sint-Niklaas, Guy Foubert married his partner
Liliane and the two immortalised their passion for chocolate
Bby creating the Guylian brand by combining their names.
In celebration of love and chocolate, the couple created for the first
time the Guylian Sea Shell Chocolates that the business is now globally
renowned for.
Bought by the Lotte Group in 2010, today the Guylian headquarters
are still based in Sint-Niklaas, whilst the company has affiliates in
Dusseldorf in Germany, Lisbon in Portugal and Oxford in the UK with
more to follow in the coming months and years. They also operate
nine Guylian Belgian Chocolate Cafés, four of these are situated across
Sydney in Australia, three are positioned throughout Dubai in the
UAE and the remaining two are ideally located in Seoul, the capital of
South Korea.
When discussing the impact of Covid-19 on the chocolate category,
current CEO Tom Snick explains that it has vastly affected different
countries in different ways. For example in the UK, there was an
enormous uplift in the category with significant double-digit growth,
whilst in Portugal there was a noticeable drop of chocolate consumption.
“We also knew that from day one of Covid-19 that the world of
duty-free would change, but it has changed dramatically,” Snick explains.
“First in 2020 it completely collapsed, then last year we reached 25 per
cent on 2019 sales and this year we predict it will reach 50 per cent. We
estimate it will never get back to 100 per cent because of how much
the world has changed. This is something we are working to counteract
in other departments because duty-free was an important element of
our business and around 20 per cent of our revenue.”
Taking the reins a little over a year ago, Snick has since gone about
implementing a completely new strategy that he coined as the five-year
plan. This strategy map has consisted of focusing on its four key ranges,
its seashell range, its seahorses range, its temptations range and its
24 RETAIL & LEISURE INTERNATIONAL APRIL 2022