An Unlikely Alliance
In the UK confectionery aisle, Haribo and Rowntree’s are direct competitors. One is a German family-owned giant, the other a historic British brand now part of the Swiss multinational Nestlé. They occupy the same shelf space and compete for the same customers. A collaboration between the two is, in market terms, unthinkable.
This concept proposes exactly that. It places the Rowntree’s Randoms brand, a Nestlé property, inside a Haribo share bag. It’s a significant thought experiment, crossing brand lines that have been drawn for decades. The ‘Randoms’ concept itself is also a departure for Haribo, a company whose identity is built on globally recognised, consistent shapes like Goldbears, Starmix rings, and Tangfastics dummies. Randoms, by design, are the opposite: a chaotic jumble of shapes with no fixed cast list.
The Current Haribo Range
Haribo’s UK presence is built on its extensive range of sharing bags. The core offering is dominated by the foundational Starmix and its sour counterpart, Tangfastics, both of which are also sold in large tubs. Alongside these are the long-standing Supermix, Goldbears, and Haribo’s take on Jelly Babies. More recent additions have aimed for different textures and consumer demands, such as the softer, 30% less sugar Fruitilicious and the retro-themed Nostalgix mix.
The portfolio also includes specific formats outside the standard mixed bags. Products like Balla Bites Zing and Rainbow Strips Zing focus on a single, sour-coated chewy sweet, while Haribo Chamallows serve the marshmallow market. A co-branded product like a Rowntree’s mix would be a completely new strategy for the company, sitting outside any of its established product families.
A Look at the Pack
The design itself merges the two brands’ visual identities. It uses Haribo’s familiar bag layout and yellow branding but prominently features the chaotic, multi-coloured Randoms logo. The sweets pictured are a blend of recognisable forms from both manufacturers. You can clearly see Haribo’s iconic fried eggs and heart-shaped jellies alongside the arbitrary shapes associated with Randoms, like ice cream cones and what appears to be a saxophone.
The original Rowntree’s product, launched in 2009, is known for its variety of textures, including standard jellies, foam-backed sweets, and some with liquid centres. The mockup raises a question of composition: would this theoretical bag contain Haribo’s firmer sweets simply moulded into new shapes, or would it be a true hybrid that also adopted the softer, foamier textures from the Rowntree’s side?
What the real range looks like
Haribo’s real UK sharing bag range includes Starmix, Tangfastics, Supermix, Goldbears, Jelly Babies, and Fruitilicious. A crossover with a direct competitor like Rowntree’s would be a major departure, creating a new category entirely separate from its current portfolio.
- Haribo Balla Bites Zing
- Haribo Starmix Sweets Tub
- Haribo Rainbow Strips Zing
- Haribo Tangfastics Sweets Tub
- Haribo Starmix Sweets Sharing Bag
- Haribo Supermix Sweets Sharing Bag
- Haribo Goldbears Sweets Sharing Bag
- Haribo Nostalgix Sweets Sharing Bag
- Haribo Jelly Babies Sweets Sharing Bag
- Haribo Fruitilicious Sweets Sharing Bag
Frequently asked questions
- Are Haribo and Rowntree’s made by the same company?
- No, they are major rivals. Haribo is a privately owned German company. Rowntree’s is a historic UK brand that has been owned by the Swiss multinational Nestlé since 1988.
- What are Rowntree’s Randoms?
- Rowntree’s Randoms were launched by Nestlé in 2009. They are a mix of jelly and foam sweets in a huge variety of non-standard, seemingly random shapes, with the slogan ‘Let your random side out’.
- Is the Haribo Rowntree’s Randoms mix real?
- No, this product does not exist. This is a Snackfish — a mockup of a fictional product created by the online design page UK Snack Attack. It is not available to buy anywhere.
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You have been Snackfished!
Snackfish :
[sn-a-ck-fish] verb
A snack that lies about its legitimacy as an official product online for internet clout and attention. Most commonly fabricated in Adobe Photoshop or using the unofficial Snackfish AI