CNSC EXCLUSIVE: New Candy Can launch taps into thirst for nostalgia
Candy Can is bottling childhood memories and turning nostalgia into a high-score marketing strategy. By blending bold, candy-inspired profiles—including its newest launch, Sparkling Bubble Gum—with a deep connection to gaming culture, the brand offers more than a simple beverage; it represents an immersive lifestyle. From fully-illustrated lids to retro arcade-themed in-store installations, Candy Can utilizes every inch of its 360-degree product design to bridge the gap between generations.
This innovative approach has not gone unnoticed, as the award-winning independent brand recently secured the title for Best Beverage Concept at the 2025 World Beverage Innovation Awards, while also placing as a finalist for its standout packaging. Beyond the playful appeal of flavours like Birthday Cake, Cotton Candy and Rocket Ice Lolly, the lineup is crafted for the modern consumer: every drink is vegan, keto-friendly, gluten-free and caffeine-free.
Convenience Store News Canada recently spoke with Candy Can founder, Sander de Jonge to discuss the brand's rapid ascent and how they are innovating the functional soda category.
CSNC: Bubble gum is such an unconventional flavour for a drink, how do you position it so that it will win over shoppers from different age levels?
SdJ: If you go way back to the main ingredient of flavour descriptions, every energy drink, like the core energy drinks, came from a kind of Tutti Frutti flavour, like Red Bull and Monster, which are the base for a bubble gum flavour. So you don't have the perception it’s bubble gum, but people love energy drinks and energy drinks are closely related to that bubble gum flavour.
CSNC: How does this collaboration with Perfetti Van Melle and the Bubblicious brand elevate candy cans credibility and consumer appeal?
SdJ: The Candy Can brand really stands for nostalgia, games, bold flavours and creating viral content. We focus on brand collaborations with gaming and with childhood candies, because that resonates with the Candy Can DNA. We say, 'never grow up' and we try to bring a childlike spark that every adult needs to have in their life, even when they're grown up: Those memories from when everything was free, easygoing, and you didn't have any responsibilities.
So we always look for the right partners and having Perfetti Van Melle partnering with us is like giving credibility to create drinkable candy flavours. And if one of the biggest candy companies in the world wants to work together with you on creating their candies in your drink, I think that's a really big compliment for the brand.
CSNC: Your cans won an award last year for design, and you also mentioned that you're bringing in gaming to your store displays. How would you recommend convenience stores to position this to highlight that gaming element?
SdJ: Our cans are in really ‘pop-y’ colours. We are the only one in the world with a fully designed lid, so we want to bring the experience to the consumer's hand. While other brands have a standard can, standard colours, a standard recipe and do a lot of marketing to bring consumers to the drink.
We want consumers to have a 360 experience. We collaborate with the retailers to bring displays into stores, mobile phone users to the shelves, then bring it all together with our social media activation, which is like our main pillar. We’re really a brand that lives on social media, on TikTok and Instagram. Together, our social media, in-store presence and the brand pops up from the shelves, along with the brand collaborations.
If it's in your face, you’ll want to try it, and if you try it, you’ll want to experience our other flavours.
CSNC: How would you recommend an operator display it specifically to get fun products like yours to stand out in a crowded cooler set?
SdJ: Well, it depends on the country and the store. So you know, there are some limitations. We always want to do some crazy stuff, but you're always limited by what the store can do for you. But, you know, we love to bring displays at the top of the aisle, or a second place within the store, so when you walk around the corner you’ll see a nice display that is completely branded, in line with the flavours that we want to highlight in that store.
For example, for the Pac-Man collaboration we made a display like an arcade game. And within the arcade game display, you could find the cans of Candy Can.
CSNC: Using social media certainly brings an experiential element to the buying experience; arcades and youthful flavours are strong nostalgic cues that drive sales. What type of shopper do you feel is driving demand for that nostalgia? Is it Gen X, Gen Z, millennial, millennials or families?
SdJ: It's 100% Gen Z. They love to explore new flavours. They're always looking for new stuff. They want rotation and innovation in what they're buying and with Candy Can, we’re really on top of that. Every year, we have two, three, four new flavours with new brand collaborations that really keeps the excitement going.
We want to create and launch new, viral stuff. We have amazing online campaigns: You see that Gen Z's are really dying to find new stuff, sharing it with their audience, and with Candy Can. We're really a brand, and that's why we have 500,000 followers on social media. In the past 12 months, we had 140 million impressions on social media because people are sharing it without us paying for it.
CSNC: How do you activate engagement with social media and convenience stores? How can the two of them combine to really bring shoppers in?
SdJ: Well, for example, we did a great campaign with Circle K two years ago. We brought in a caramel fudge flavour and a toffee apple flavour inspired by Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We had a relationship with Warner Brothers, so when the new movie came out they supplied us with one of the props that was used in the movie. We set up a joint campaign with Circle K on our social media, but also on Circle K’s socials that a customer could win the original golden ticket. There are only two that exist in the world.
We really worked together with their social media team to make this happen. And that's kind of unique, because normally with a retailer you have a buyer, and you have a seller. We try to sell it, and you get in the store, on the shelf, and that's it. Stores can run discounts and stuff like that, but we really cooperated with them on a joint promotion, which was really cool.
CSNC: Will this be a limited time offer, or are you just testing it for long term placement potential?
SdJ: This is absolutely longer term placement. So when partnering with Perfetti Van Melle, we always sign a multi-year deal; this is at least a three year deal. We want to be on the shelves, hopefully for 10-plus years, because the Bubblicious flavour is well known. It is an exact copy of the chewing gum, because the development team is really on it to achieve parity to their candies. Otherwise, customers would not be satisfied if they drink our Candy Can and it doesn’t match the real candy. So we put a lot of effort and R&D in this to make it work. So we want to have it in the market for a long time.
Using AI to analyze trends
CSNC: What are some broader beverage trends? You are currently working with nostalgia as one of the inspirations for the flavours. But what other trends, like local or indulgence or treat culture, are influencing your innovation strategy?
SdJ: We're using a lot of AI to analyze trends. You know, what are Gen Z requesting, what kind of flavours they want. But for sure, the brand is always looking for more health-conscious recipe development. We have a zero-sugar lineup, but we saw that consumers prefer a bit of sugar taste wise. So on the Canadian market this year, we added a little bit of sugar, but we're still low calorie. So we absolutely want to distinguish ourselves from the big brands that have like 11 grams of sugar per 100 ml; we are at 4.4 grams of sugar per 100 ml.
CSNC: Which convenience channels are a priority for the April rollout: which retailers in Canada will see the new soda?
SdJ: Circle K, Couche-Tard, Bulk Barn, Loblaws, Giant Tiger and Jean Coutu are the starting retail partners that we are working with for the roll out of the Bubbalicious flavour.
CSNC: How soon can independent retailers expect access to the stock?
SdJ: Tomorrow. We have stock available locally in the Canadian market, and we can deliver right away.
CSNC: How important is a limited time offer strategy to your growth in the convenience industry?
SdJ: Everybody's looking for something new, so you need to bring the innovation. I think that's something that we as Candy Can are really good at. So every time we have a meeting with a buyer we bring something new to the table that they've never seen. If you want to attract the Gen Z for a longer time, you need to play the game that they want to see. That means rotating flavours, bring in new stuff, innovating flavours, but also in packaging and games campaigns with QR codes. Bring them into a world where you can play a game or interact with the brand.
