Faith in Christian Easter egg pays off

By Anne Bruce

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Easter

Faith in Christian Easter egg pays off
The manufacturer of a 'faith based' ethical Easter egg say the product has been an overwhelming success with supermarkets and mail order clients.

The Real Easter Egg, the UK’s first and only Fairtrade charity egg to mention Jesus on the box, saw production of 73,038 this year, according to own-label supplier BBB Dovedale.

Operations manager Paddy Lavin told FoodManufacture.co.uk that unexpected levels of demand had allowed the company to keep on seasonal staff for an extra two months.

He commented: “We made a small margin on the £3.99 egg but it was really good for business as there is high unemployment in the village where we are based, and the contract allowed us to keep on seasonal staff.”

Meaningful chocolate

The idea for an ethical egg with a Christian message was the brainchild of David Marshall, of the Meaningful Chocolate Company.

Initially none of the supermarkets listed the product. However a church led campaign persuaded Morrison’s, Waitrose, Co-op and Booths to trial the concept.

Thirty pence from every egg sold goes to Fairtrade company Traidcraft Exchange, amounting to a total of £22,000 this year.

Charity Baby Lifeline will receive 10% from Real Easter Egg net profits.

Scaling up production

David Marshall told FoodManufacture.co.uk that he was now working on ideas for a similar Christmas product. Next year’s production of the Real Easter Egg was also set to be dramatically scaled up.

Shirebook, Derbyshire based BBB Dovedale supplies 3m eggs to own label eggs to clients including Thorntons and as well as producing Disney licensed eggs.

The company is subsidiary of Bon Bon Buddies, formed when Bon Bon Buddies acquired Dovedale Confectionery from administration in May 2010.

Related topics Confectionery

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