Glass ovenware from US manufacturer Anchor Hocking Glass is to be renamed, repackaged and offered to retailers with new display hardware and signs intended to make the line more visible in shops.
As …
Glass ovenware from US manufacturer Anchor Hocking Glass is to be renamed, repackaged and offered to retailers with new display hardware and signs intended to make the line more visible in shops. As of April 1996, what Anchor used to call “Oven Basics” will become “Oven Originals”. The company also announced that package graphics have been renewed. One change will be in the photographs on boxes; Anchor“s consumer research found that pictures that included food were more “warm and homey,” said Eileen Tarbutton, product manager for ovenware. Anchor will offer the products both with and without labels, allowing the consumer to see and touch the item, and has developed a display system which will hold flat merchandise, such as baking dishes, vertically on shelves. US competitor Corning, which owns the Pyrex brand, calls some of its products “Pyrex Originals”. According to the general merchandise manager for a leading US retail concern, Anchor“s main advantage against Pyrex is price. Pyrex, he pointed out, costs 20% more than Anchor Hocking“s ovenware although, according to estimates, Pyrex may outsell Anchor glass ovenware by a ratio of three or four to one. Pyrex and Anchor Hocking are the only significant names in glass ovenware in the US. Business amounted to an estimated US$ 152 million in 1994. Pyrex, more than 80 years old, does roughly US$ 125 million-worth of business, almost entirely in ovenware, and it enjoys a brand awareness of more than 90% in almost every female demographic group. Anchor“s brand awareness is lower, according to retailers and most of its approximately US$ 150 million in sales are in drinkware, not ovenware. It is one of the three largest concerns in the glass drinkware sector.