Prestige preparing big pediatric cough-cold splash

NEW YORK — You can expect to see quite a bit of co-promotional activity between PediaCare and Little Remedies in the 2011-2012 cough-cold season, Prestige Brands president and CEO Matthew Mannelly told investors Wednesday morning at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2011 Consumer Conference held here.

Prestige acquired PediaCare in November 2010 as part of its acquisition of Blacksmith Brands. That meant the timing for in-store co-promotional activity, such as primary endcap displays for the 2010-2011 season had passed, but not for the 2011-2012 cough-cold season and beyond. “Over the next couple of years, we’re going to be going down that path, and it’s going to be really exciting for us,” Mannelly told investors.

Prior to the acquisition, Prestige had been priced out of many of those endcap programs because of its smaller footprint. Now, with the acquisition of PediaCare and with cough-cold-allergy brands Luden’s and NasalCrom, Prestige fields a hefty cough-cold portfolio, Mannelly said.

Mannelly also suggested historical cough-cold product buying patterns will come back into play. For the 2009-2010 season, H1N1 pandemic concerns prompted many retailers to buy early and often, resulting in a supply chain overloaded with cough-cold products when the H1N1 phenom failed to translate into over-the-counter sales. Retailers will resume aligning their buys a little more closely to consumption, he said.