Mars Wrigley has unveiled its NPD line-up for Easter 2026, building on the strength of its best-loved brands to deliver innovation across both Easter treating and gifting occasions. The new launches include MALTESERS® Mini Eggs and GALAXY® MINSTRELS® Mini Eggs in the small sharing format, and TWIX® White XL Egg and MilkyWay® Large Egg in the shell egg format. These new products are set to join returning seasonal favourites from 1st January 2026, offering exciting NPD across Easter purchasing.
Easter remains one of the largest opportunities and most joyful moments in the confectionery calendar, with three in four shoppers purchasing chocolate at Easter[1]. With unit sales growing by +2.2%[2] vs 2024, shoppers’ appetite for treating and gifting continues to grow. Mars Wrigley’s new launches are set to drive excitement in-store and assist retailers in capturing a strong share of the growing seasonal opportunity.
Steve Waters, Senior Brand Manager, Easter at Mars Wrigley, commented: “At Mars Wrigley, we continue to build on the strength of our much-loved brands to create new products that delight shoppers and deliver growth for our retail partners. For Easter 2026, we’re expanding our portfolio with a line-up that combines flavour innovation and playful seasonal design to help retailers make the most of this momentum.”
“From the launch of new mini eggs, which tap into the growing small sharing segment – now worth 24% of total Easter sales and growing +28% year-on-year[3] – to the traditional occasion of gifting shell eggs to friends and family in the later part of the season. The Mars Wrigley Easter portfolio allows shoppers and consumers to partake in those key Easter rituals of sharing, gifting and treating.”
NPD: Easter Egg Hunt
As the number one Easter activity[4], egg hunts remain a powerful driver of seasonal engagement and incremental confectionery sales. With 56% of households with children under ten taking part in an Easter egg hunt last year[5], this continues to be a key Easter routine for families that retailers can activate against. For Easter 2026, Mars Wrigley is building on this shopper behaviour with two new Mini Egg launches:
- MALTESERS® Mini Eggs lead the line-up, combining crunchy MALTESERS® pieces with smooth milk chocolate to deliver the brand’s signature light texture in a seasonal, bite-sized format. Ideal for egg hunts, gifting and sharing, the launch strengthens MALTESERS®’ position as a leader in playful treating and drives early-season excitement at fixture.
- Also joining the range are GALAXY® MINSTRELS® Mini Eggs, launching nationally following a successful exclusive with Co-op in 2025. With a crisp outer shell and a silky chocolate centre, this indulgent new format brings the hallmark smoothness of GALAXY® to egg hunts and supports broader cross-category trade-up.
NPD: Gifting
Gifting remains the heart of the Easter season, worth £75 million annually and a key driver of trade-up across the category[6]. Larger egg formats continue to perform strongly, with Mars Wrigley’s large and extra-large eggs delivering double-digit growth in 2024.
For 2026, Mars Wrigley is expanding its gifting portfolio with two new products designed to attract attention on shelf and deliver visual appeal for retailers. The premium chocolate gifting segment is up +13% year-on-year as shoppers trade up to higher-quality, exclusive formats[7]. New launches unveiled are:
- Brand new for 2026, the MilkyWay® Large Egg will appeal to families and younger audiences. Featuring the brand’s unmistakable fun appeal, this large egg format delivers strong incremental potential in-store.
- The TWIX® White XL Egg makes its market-wide debut following a successful exclusive launch in Tesco in 2025. Pairing TWIX®’s signature biscuit, caramel and creamy white chocolate, the format also taps into the trend for white chocolate variants and continues to drive premium trade-up opportunities within the Extra-Large segment.
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