Your Views

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Your e-Mails

Pete Coates	Hi Nicey & Wifey, Like other readers I am not surprised to read on your site that the much to be preferred Plain Chocolate Hobnob has been dropped. My local branch of Tesco hasn't featured it on its shelves for some time now. As a "mature" (53) biscuit eater with a "sophisticated" palate I always opt for a dark version over the milk should there be a choice. I don't see how McVities are going to get more sales if they are not going to appeal to the older consumer. Don't they realise that the population is, on the whole, getting older and they, the silver haired sophisticates that is, aren't interested in the new-fangled but prefer tried and trusted favourites? McVities are undoubtedly running a strong risk of alienating a very sizeable section of the biscuit buying - and eating - public and, moreover, one that doesn't want to be coerced into paying over the odds for a favourite comestible. Incidentally, has anybody else found it hard to get fig rolls in Tesco? My local Tesco Extra has stopped stocking them and I could not find them at the local Tesco Superstore. Sainsbury, to their credit, had both their own brand, which were tasteless, and Jacobs ( yum, yum!). Now I don't know if my short term memory is playing up but those aforementioned Jacobs Fig Rolls had ridges on top, I believe, just like the biscuit of old. Have Jacobs gone back to the old recipe or did I enter a time-warp in that supermarket and retrieve that packet from my past? I'm going to have to return there and buy another packet to check. Pete
	Nicey replies: Very good point about the growing grey pound, a phenomena that McVities are themselves instrumental in now that they have removed the trans-fats from their biscuits and lowered sodium. Our local Tesco too has dramatically reduced the size of its biscuit aisle, and probably as a company Tesco have been backing away from the Plain Chocolate Hobnob all of 2006 as sales slowed. As we saw with Abbey Crunch this can now be the death knell for a previously high volume product. It's not good for consumers to have our McVities buying choices apparently dictated primarily by the combination of the biscuit buyer at Tescos and the brand managers at McVities. No doubt the two have a long list of statistics about sales and consumer trends to back up their decisions, it just seems in this case that the tube was factored out of the equation long ago when in fact it was the explanation. Certainly when we do visit our nearest Sainsburys the biscuit aisle seems extensive, inviting, stimulating and somehow sympathetic. Wifey knows now to go and do two or three other things while I'm ensconced in there making important and considered decisions. I get a similar feeling when visiting the very large and extensive Ironmongers in town as opposed to nipping into Homebase/B&Q etc. As for the ridges on Jacob's Fig Rolls yes they are back, although they seem to me to be not such a problem as those of old which could harbour excessive amounts of crust.
Andrew Bourbon-Cream	As if news of the impending demise of the Plain Chocolate HobNob wasn't bad enough, one must now face the fact that we are moving out of the Cream Tea Season. Living in the west country, perhaps we lockels are more sensitive than most to this time of year but the sad fact remains that with the passing of the fresh strawberry season, we now must face a sudden down-turn in cream tea uptake. Wifey-Darling will no doubt become quieter, virtually hibernating over winter until the daffodils and Cream Tea signs start to re-appear next spring. All I ask is that your devoted readers and well-wishers keep in mind the many who shall be suffering these coming months. Some suggest Panettone therapy, but it's not the same, it really isn't. Here's some lovely crumbly scones Wifey-Darling made earlier this year for a do: Sincerely Andrew Bourbon-Cream
	Nicey replies: That really is the nicest picture of strawberry topped scones we have ever seen.
Nick Q	Dear Nicey I wish to add to the howls of protest regarding plain chocolate Hobnobs. I know Nicey, that you are not responsible for the demise of the product but I’m sure the marketing folk at McVities scrutinise your website closely and probably use it as some sort of cheap focus group. I agree with everything you say about your opinions on the downfall of the PCH. The PCH is a unique product occupying a niche in the market that is not filled elsewhere. At a push I suspect PCH fans will resort to the plain uncoated product but I suspect few, if any, would consider the hazelnut, caramel or orange alternatives which are nouveau arrivistes lacking sublety and flavour. I think McVities have acquired a somewhat scattergun approach of late to their products. They seem to want to stick any old topping, coating or filling on a biscuit and see if it’ll fly in the marketplace. These new products may briefly grasp the attention of the public but few I doubt have the integrity and qualities of the PCH that will ensure their long-term survival in the hurly-burly world of biscuits. They are tinkering dangerously with their range, their marketing budget to get these new products recognized must be horrific and to what end? Most of them will have died away in a few years time to be replaced with some other flash-in-the-pan, gimcrack biscuit with equally transient credentials. McVities! Sort your act out! Can we Plain Chocolate Hobnob protesters have an icon please? Perhaps a coffin would be appropriate. Keep up the good work. Nick Q
	Nicey replies: What ever NCOTAASD is it shouldn't need to be picking through the bones of a biscuit crisis providing angst ridden feedback at this late hour. Customer service departments, and I have always heard good reports about McVities, are the main interface for listening to your customers. How a company chooses to propagate that feedback is a matter for their own creativity. Now obviously it would presumptuous of me to guess how UB works internally but any large companies I have worked for have tried to include feedback from their customer services dept in strategic planning for their product ranges. Mind you how many people felt aggrieved that they were being forced to buy Plain Chocolate HobNobs in needlessly expensive tubes and silently just switched to most probably Plain Chocolate Digestives. Its difficult to pick up on such things just by looking at run rates and listening to orders coming through from business customers unless you fully engage in a real dialogue with your customers. Lets hope they see sense and put some back in cellophane and do some kind of promotion to grab peoples attention to the fact. Yes you're right we need an icon.
Helen Smith	It was with a heavy heart that I read your headline this morning re Dark Choccie Hobnobs. I had a suspicion that they were becoming rarer, but now I am devastated. I will just have to make my own from now on. McVities, you have dropped a clanger with this. Lets hope some far-sighted supermarket will grasp the oaty baton and start to make their own version. Of course the ultimate irony is that McVities will probably make them! As long as they don't have that stupid tube, I'll be happy. I think they have tried to please all men with all things. Milk chocolate orange Hobnobs are just plain wrong. I have previously made my own dark chocolate orange Hobnobs, and concluded that taste-wise, there was too much going on. But, with the Blitz spirit that made this country what it is, no ginormous biscuit corporation is going to deprive me of my biscuity delights, no sir! Sorry, just a bit emotional there. Yours traumatically Helen
Matt	Re: Plain Chocolate HobNobs Well yet again some spotty Herbert of a marketing guru gets involved and buggers up a perfectly good products then when it falls in sales they ditch it as it must be the public not wanting it… couldn’t possibly be the public reacting to the changes. Maybe for once they should reverse their changes and see what happens to sales.
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