Dealing with the financial difficulties brought about by the coronavirus has required patience and, above all, hard work from the entire JäPS club community. Despite everything, this difficult period has also seen some brand new glimmers of light, the brightest of which is definitely the collaboration with Kouvola's Lakritsi that began in spring 2021.
JäPS and Kouvola's Lakritsi, one of Finland's most well-known confectionery brands, came together through a small coincidence. In the spring of 2020, the Kouvola residents came up with a project to aim for a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, which is at the top of the list of the world's best-selling books almost every year. The confectionery manufacturer decided to aim for this – of course – through the world's largest bag of lakritsi.
The record-breaking bag, which weighed a whopping 832.8 kilos, was assembled at the Kouvola Lakritsi factory, from where it was then sent to the Citymarket in Järvenpää. The world's best grocery store was a very natural partner for Kouvola Lakritsi; the company, which claimed the title of Finland's best licorice manufacturer in 1995, achieved a slightly more global accolade last year when the prestigious British magazine Luxlife named it the world's best licorice factory.
As part of the cooperation between Järvenpää Football Club and Citymarket, a large number of members of the blue community, from junior players to the national team, participated in the “dismantling” of the aforementioned record bag – the record bag was repackaged into smaller units on the store premises. These smaller bags were then sold, and with the proceeds (supplemented with additional funding), the company purchased an apartment in Kouvola for the winner of the New Start in Kouvola recruitment campaign.
The record bag-breaking operation gave JäPS and Kouvola's Lakritsi a more direct collaboration, which was further accelerated by the already existing connections towards Kouvola. JäPS understood that they had an absolute quality product at hand and at the same time a pressing need for fundraising at the club due to the corona pandemic. Unlike the socks and biscuits that have been sold and seen many times, it was also possible to modify the licorice packaging so that the appearance of the product alone could make the club known and promote brand communication.
With the blessing of Kouvolan Lakritsi, JäPS utilized an existing concept, reshaping it from the original to reflect the club's image, resulting in this personalized 500 gram package of Lakritsi. The recognition of the Kouvolan Lakritsi brand and the recognition the company had received were also seen as factors that would facilitate sales, so the collaboration was approached with great enthusiasm from the start in Järvenpää.
In the early stages, the sale was carried out somewhat cautiously in an experimental spirit; the club first put 500 half-kilo boxes on sale, in addition to which Kouvola's Licorice had promised to send a second batch with a short delivery time. The ultimate idea was that with moderate order quantities and a staggered delivery schedule, it would also be possible to guarantee the freshness of the product. In practice, the internal process worked so that the club acted as a cash register, purchasing the product from Kouvola, after which the age groups sold it, keeping the proceeds for themselves and paying for the purchases after the sales.
Sales figures were immediately revealed to be higher than JäPS had even dared to hope for. Licorice sold like hot cakes, and batches of 500 packages had to be reordered week after week. After 2,500 packages were sold, it was decided to put the operation on a summer break; during the sales period, which lasted about a month, the age groups had respectably managed to collect a net profit of well over 10,000 euros. So, it can be said with a clear conscience that JäPS had – and still has – a liquorice drug on its hands.
Based on the messages from within the age groups, the collaboration has been received more than positively. For example , Marja Vepsä-Taipale, the P11 age group leader, commented on it as follows:
– Liquorice turned out to be an easy and pleasant product to sell, which was a joy in the bleakness of the corona spring. In our age group, players and families sold almost half a thousand packages of licorice, which brought in a tidy sum of profit. The sales process was also painless, and the liquorice was easy to reserve and pick up from the office based on orders.
Kouvola's Licorice is hopefully here to stay as part of the JäPS product family, and it will probably also be a close part of the men's national team's match events starting this summer. In addition to the products that will be available for buffet sale, both teams' Sweetest Player will be awarded at home matches, and VIP-level licorice will naturally also be available in the VIP tent.
JäPS has found the concept to be very effective in practice, and here's a tip for other sports clubs!
The original text was published on the JäPS website on July 13, 2021.