A sweet idea by a nine-year-old schoolboy from Co Antrim has become a new product sold in SPAR stores across the UK.
Archie Barr, who hails from Ballygally, has seen his imaginary packet of sweets being made into a reality by the local retailer.
After being presented with Archie’s drawing, which featured a sweet-eating monster, owner of SPAR Ballygally, Chris Todd, shared the idea with Henderson Group, which owns the SPAR franchise in Northern Ireland and the rest is history.
Archie’s ‘Wobbly Jelly’ monster drawing has inspired the packaging design of SPAR’s newest confectionery product, Fizzy Fangs, which arrived in-store in recent weeks, with Archie on hand to help stack the shelves and sell to shoppers.
Archie Barr, who hails from Ballygally, has seen his imaginary packet of sweets being made into a reality by the local retailer.
After being presented with Archie’s drawing, which featured a sweet-eating monster, owner of SPAR Ballygally, Chris Todd, shared the idea with Henderson Group, which owns the SPAR franchise in Northern Ireland and the rest is history.
Archie’s ‘Wobbly Jelly’ monster drawing has inspired the packaging design of SPAR’s newest confectionery product, Fizzy Fangs, which arrived in-store in recent weeks, with Archie on hand to help stack the shelves and sell to shoppers.
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00This packaging design was inspired by a drawing sent to us by Archie Barr, aged 8, or nearly 10,
00:08a local shopper at Spar Ballygally Cool Antrim, Northern Ireland.
00:13I was just working away one day and Archie approached me with his mum and they had a little page in their hand
00:19and they walk up to me and Archie was like, I've something to show you Chris, it was their kit.
00:23And I went from puzzlement as to like, why is this being presented to me?
00:27And suddenly was absolutely astounded at the ingenuity of it all, the creativity that he put down on the page,
00:34it was absolutely fantastic and he was just like, beaming as he presented it to me.
00:40I actually called it Bob.
00:42So I was bored that day and it was really rainy so I decided that I was going to make my own suite for the 50p suites in Spar.
00:49He says he was bored that day but literally I think he was just throwing it all out,
00:55the creativity out on a page that day, it was astounding.
00:58It was interesting to see this sort of passion in him for suites, as all kids do,
01:04but it went beyond that to sort of, there was this sort of deep roots in genuine product design and product development.
01:11I like the way it's like a pinky red here because like the opposite of blue is like a reddy pink,
01:18so it like stands out against the blue which I like.
01:21Having studied product design and design communication myself, he nailed it.
01:25All the ingredients, visual and literal ingredients, were all there to showcase what he was trying to communicate, it was fantastic.
01:32I like the way the back starts blue because it makes the light blue stand out and it's cool.
01:37It wasn't like it was a competition, he's just decided to do this off his own back which is lovely to see it come to fruition.
01:44It's lovely to also be the shop that he came to, you know, it's like we're his local so he's like I have to show this to Chris.
01:52He put it in a ploy pocket and they gave me three free packets of 50p suites.
01:56And now it's a real thing?
01:58Yeah, real thing.
02:00Even has a little spar logo.
02:04Yes!
02:07He finds.
02:08He finds.
02:12So it's usually fizzy, kind of like peri and like it's really nice, it's like peri and like a chewy raspberry kind of in the middle.
02:24They're really good.
02:25What'd you get?
02:2910.1
02:31So I knew it had to be at least, at least shown to Spard.
02:36And I put it on Facebook and it was kind of like, you know, it was getting a little bit of buzz and stuff like that.
02:41And it was only a few weeks back we were contacted to say listen this is really growing legs and arms and here it is.
02:47It's in the process and it's a physical product right here in front of me.
02:51It was exciting, couldn't wait to see it, couldn't wait for today.
02:54Couldn't wait to see Archie's reaction as well, which is cute.
02:57Thank you!
02:59Whoa!
03:01I got Bob.
03:04Bob, Bob and extra Bob.
03:11It has now went nationwide and these are available all over the UK.
03:14So it's super cool to see our little village on the Antrim coast suddenly to go nationwide and needs to be available throughout Spars.
03:23But we are the first.
03:24We are the first.
03:25We are the first.
03:30If I could make a new suite that I would design it'd be red Robert Rabbits carrots.
03:37So I would do like a red rabbit called Robert, Robert on the front.
03:43And then he'd be like holding like a carrot but the carrot is like a clear window and then it would show like the carrots.
03:51Like, but they're not carrot flavoured, that'd be disgusting.
03:54But they're like black currant, strawberry, like that kind of thing.
03:59Like loads of different flavours and yeah, red Robert's carrots.