O'Brien Cooks Up Mix-and-Match Snack Merchandiser

To encourage consumers to try more than one variety of its meat snacks. O'Brien & Co., Bellevue, Neb., created a mix-and-match merchandiser. "This allows retailers to sell two items for a set price of about a dollar," says John O'Brien, vice president.O'Brien & Co. is a third-generation, family-owned company that produces top-quality meat snacks. O'Brien says its products consist of all meat, where other companies frequently use poultry, soy or hydrolized vegetable proteins and fillers, which deteriorate the product's texture. O'Brien's line of 1-ounce snacks includes Hickory Smoked Beef Sticks, Pepperoni-Flavored Beef Sticks, Honey Ham & Cheese Sticks, Beef & Cheddar Sticks, Beef Steak Strips, Beef Summer Sausage and Hot-N-Spicy Sausage.The company created its mix-and-match merchandiser as a floor display shipper that comes prepacked with three varieties of O'Brien meat snacks. The unit holds 160 twin packs of Hickory Smoked Beef Sticks, 140 Beef & Cheddar Sticks and 200 Beef Steak Strips.O'Brien says this point-of-purchase display, which measures 25 inches wide by 49 inches high by 16 inches deep, is not large enough for an end-aisle display itself, but often is incorporated with a display of complementary snacks or beverages.The company designed this shipper display for ease of handling and assembly. "You can set up the base, add the case of meat snacks and insert the header card in five minutes," O'Brien says. The brightly colored display incorporates O'Brien's trademarked slogan "Taste the Magic!" and its famous leprechaun and clovers.This mix-and-match meat snack merchandiser is an adaptation of another display touting O'Brien's 11-ounce summer sausage. "That one was a successful means of getting product displayed in retail settings, so we adapted it to our meat snack line," says O'Brien.The company says retailers probably will use this display for only six to eight weeks. "We expect retailers to move the product out in that time frame," says O'Brien. Then, at the retailer's request, O'Brien will send a fresh display containing another case of meat snacks. "This promotion has become part of our permanent line," he adds.So far, several large chains have ordered this mix-and-match merchandiser. "We saw very good interest at a recent snack and candy trade show," says O'Brien. "Several more chains have given verbal commitments."

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