Your investment journey in Canada starts with Immediate Core

The UK experienced its first ‘normal’ Easter in a couple of years in 2022 and retailers reported positive sales, which was amazing news for the sector.

Some convenience stores even sold out of classic shell eggs.

Easter is of course a great time to celebrate with your favourite chocolate. Compared to Christmas, shoppers are usually more likely to make a dedicated trip for chocolate at Easter, showcasing the size of the opportunity for confectionery. The ONS reported a jump in retail sales in April 2022, supported by food and drink spending in the lead up to the Easter weekend. This showed that consumers still wanted to spend for a special occasion, especially when it came to treating.

With more of us likely to get together to celebrate in 2023, there’s no doubt that Easter remains a massive season at the tills for retailers. Ferrero saw strong sales in 2022 – Ferrero Rocher Easter collection for example grew by 10.8% year-on-year (Nielsen) and Ferrero eggs are now worth £4.6m thanks to increased distribution.

“Easter brings with it an increased number of confectionery purchase opportunities – both as gifts, for all ages I would add, and as self-treating,” comments Jason Sutherland, UK & Ireland sales director, Ferrero UK. “It is important that retailers cater for various requirements ahead of Easter.”

Boxed chocolate always plays a pivotal role at this time of year and Ferrero Rocher 300g is the number one Classic Boxed SKU within total boxed chocolate (Nielsen), so it’s a must-stock for retailers this season. Alternatively, Kinder Egg Hunt 150g provides families with the tools to host an Easter egg hunt within their household, outside or with others, helping people make memories.

“Even though consumers may be looking to be choiceful with what they purchase, we expect luxury and larger Easter eggs to do well with shoppers as they look to treat themselves, so we recommend retailers stock up on Ferrero Rocher Collection Boxed Egg (240g) and Thorntons Continental Egg (257g) to tap into this audience,” adds Sutherland.

Ferrero UK’s Easter collection is available from January 2023 across grocery and convenience. It will be supported in-store across grocery and convenience with POS available to retailers, as well as digital and social media marketing activity taking place to raise awareness of the confectionery portfolio.

Ferrero UK is bringing back its seasonal favourites including Kinder Joy, Ferrero Collection Crispy Eggs, and Thorntons Classic Eggs, and introducing new innovations for Easter 2023 to help retailers maximise sales. Ferrero is launching two boxed egg packs for 2023, a Ferrero Rocher Egg and a Ferrero Collection (Milk) Egg, which both include a large 175g egg and six Pralines. On top of this, Ferrero is introducing a new 100g Chocolate Bunny for Easter.

We had some shining stars in the Kinder range last Easter, including the 110g Kinder Bunny, which saw sales increase by 16% (worth £292k, Nielsen). The 75g ‘Kinder Figure with Surprise’ is now worth £1.1m, following a boost of 32% and this benefitted from additional distribution in 2022 across grocery and convenience (Nielsen). Ferrero also saw phenomenal success with the 36g ‘Kinder Figure with Surprise’, with sales up 88% (worth £347k, Nielsen) – the company expects smaller gift items like this to perform well again this Easter.

Kinder Surprise is a big focus for Ferrero at this time of year and accounts for 33% of Kinder unit sales during Easter. Kinder Seasonal is returning for Easter 2023 with familiar favourites such as Kinder Joy, Kinder Egg Hunt and Kinder Figures, while the brand has a license agreement with Disney’s Avatar to provide figurines in 100g Surprise easter eggs.

On top of this, Kinder packaging was reimagined last year, bringing a more distinctive design and a refreshed Easter bunny image to maintain relevance for the Kinder brand during the season.

Thorntons is expanding its range of popular moulded figures next year with the launch of a white chocolate Bunny in the much-loved 90g format, with an RRP of £2.50, to cater for more gifting occasions. Thorntons’ existing 170g Bunny is already the third bestselling branded SKU in value sales within novelties, worth £1.48m (Nielsen). For the year ahead Ferrero is looking to increase distribution on Classic 150g eggs, as well as the larger 220g option – with the larger format supporting retailers in driving trade-up opportunities.

A full pack redesign will roll out across Thorntons’ figure eggs, aiming to drive standout on shelf. Thorntons’ eggs are the third fastest growing medium egg gift range. This was supported by a 30% rise in penetration in 2022, with increased spend from pre-family and empty nesters, showcasing the products’ wide demographic reach and strength as a gift.

A Mars Wrigley spokesperson comments: “Easter is a key occasion for driving chocolate sales. The shopper mindset shifts in the run up to Easter, from impulse purchases in the early part of the season – accounting for 45% of total Easter confectionery sales (Nielsen) – when Easter ranges serve as permissible treats, to planned purchases in the weeks immediately preceding Easter weekend for seasonal gifting, events and activities such as egg hunts.”

The last three weeks in the Easter countdown represent 55% of sales and 70% of traditional egg and egg hunt sales, with 28% of seasonal sales in the last week (Nielsen). The gifting of chocolate eggs is the largest and most traditional ritual of the Easter celebration, with 85% of UK adults buying Easter eggs in 2022 (Spark). This year will see the return of Mars Wrigley’s most popular eggs in a range of sizes to suit various shopper profiles.

Orange chocolate has grown +46% versus 2021 (Nielsen). Mars Wrigley is meeting the growing consumer demand for this flavour at Easter with the return of Maltesers Orange Bunny, which was the most successful self-eat NPD in value share and sales in 2021 (Nielsen).

New for 2023 are M&M’S Easter Shapes, which are hollow chocolate shapes filled with mini M&M’S and individually wrapped in colourful foil. Shapes are growing category, with 15% of households purchasing Easter shapes and 13% of shoppers repeat purchasing gift shapes during the Easter period (Kantar). M&M’S Easter Shapes come in mixed cases of two unique designs for maximum shelf efficiency and are stackable for building in-aisle displays.

Maltesers is the No.1 brand in the novelty shapes category (Nielsen) and 18% of shoppers repeat purchase Maltesers Bunny (Kantar), which is back for the Easter season in self-eat bars and 5-packs. Also back by popular demand are Maltesers White Mini Bunnies pouches, the No.1 small sharing novelty shape in value sales (Nielsen), which are in a unique position with 68% of shoppers only buying white bunnies (Kantar).

In its luxury Easter egg range Mars Wrigley is responding to consumer demand for the caramel flavour, which has grown +14.8% (3yr CAGR, Nielsen), with new Galaxy Caramel Truffles Luxury Egg. The Maltesers Truffles Luxury Egg is returning as a premium option in a consumer favourite brand and all truffles will have new single-layer wrappers, cutting down on packaging.

Maltesers is the No.1 brand in the novelty shapes category (Nielsen) and 2022 saw 18% of shoppers repeat purchase Maltesers Bunny (Kantar), which comes in self-eat bars and 5-packs. Meanwhile, Maltesers White Mini Bunnies pouches were the No.1 small sharing novelty shape in value sales (Nielsen) and are in a unique position with 68% of shoppers only buying white bunnies (Kantar).

Hunt mixes have become increasingly popular now the egg hunt has become a firmly established Easter ritual, with more than 1 in 5 participating in the springtime adventure (Spark), and both Mars Wrigley’s Maltesers Easter Hunt Mix and Galaxy Easter Hunt Mix packs were in the top 5 hunt packs (Nielsen) for 2022.

Medium eggs play a significant role in driving early season sales and repeat purchases and Maltesers Medium Egg is a key penetration driver throughout the Easter season, achieving the highest unique penetration of all eggs (33%, Kantar) last year. Mars Wrigley also took a 20% share of the large egg category (Nielsen), which grew by +25% in value sales (Nielsen), and a 34% share of extra-large eggs with its brands accounting for 9 out of the Top 20 extra-large egg SKUs (Nielsen). Maltesers Crunchy and Galaxy Enchanted also scored Top 10 giant egg SKU places (Nielsen).

Susan Nash, Trade Communications Manager at Mondelez International, comments: “Mondelez International is proud to be the number one (Nielsen) supplier at Easter time, bringing retailers exciting campaigns, new launches and iconic shopper favourites too. To make the most of the season, retailers should split Easter into three phases: getting off to a fast start, building momentum, and then gearing up for a ‘gifting finish’ as the period reaches its finale.”

The ‘fast start’ phase focuses on shoppers looking for small treats for themselves, such as Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Mini Eggs, and typically runs from January until Valentine’s Day.

Following its momentous success in the 2022 season, Mondelez International has announced that Cadbury Creme Egg’s ‘How Do You Not Eat Yours?’ campaign will return when the treats reappear on shelves in all their gooey glory.

Shoppers will be warned once again to keep an eye out for an extra special half-milk chocolate, half-white chocolate Cadbury Creme Egg. If they can resist eating it, the unique treat can win them up to £10,000.

The competition will put consumers across the nation to the ultimate Easter test, sparking the annual “How Do You Eat Yours” debate. With social, digital, and OOH activations, everyone will know that the goo is back. Grocers can drum up egg-citement for its return with eye-catching POS featuring this year’s twist on the iconic phrase: How Do You NOT Eat Yours.

This year, Cadbury Creme Eggs is releasing its first ever product innovation: Cadbury White Creme Egg.

Cadbury Mini Eggs’ 80G bag is the #1 Easter SKU, with 115 bags bought every minute (Nielsen). For 2023, the brand is launching a new 1kg bag format.

Cadbury Dairy Milk Orange Filled bags, combining the nation’s favourite chocolate (Nielsen) with real orange oil, are also available across the market for the first time this year.

Dominic Simler, PLAYin CHOC managing director, comments: “Consumers are getting wise to ‘bad’ chocolate and the news agenda is helping to shine light on big chocolate companies’ unethical practices and unhealthy ingredients as well as non-recyclable landfill packaging across the category. All of this should begin to have an impact at a retail level, particularly at Easter with it being one of the main chocolate gifting occasions in the year.”

PLAYin CHOC’s plant based organic recipe is made from just three plants: the finest Peruvian cacao 100% criollo beans, from small farm collectives, Sri Lankan creamed coconut and coconut sugar, and premium Madagascan Bourbon vanilla making it free-from the main 14 allergens and a school safe chocolate for Easter and other celebratory occasions.

PLAYin CHOC ensures that every element of its packaging is fully sustainable. Each chocolate is wrapped in plastic-free home compostable plant cellulose which is also marine biodegradable and its toys and outer boxes are paper-based meaning the brand is 100% recyclable, and plastic free to ensure that nothing ends up in landfill or polluting the oceans.

The brand’s ToyChoc Box Rabbit gift set of six and single boxes are the perfect mix of chocolate treat and toy puzzle for children. As an Easter gift, each ToyChoc Box is the perfect balance of two individually portioned pieces of chocolate, an educational fun facts card and animal puzzle toy, which keeps a child happy and entertained.

Last year PLAYin CHOC partnered with RHS Gardens across the country to provide its organic, free-from, vegan chocolate to children taking part in Easter trails at its main attraction sites. The brand supplied single units of its Rabbit ToyChoc Boxes, which proved very popular with visitors and meant each and every child taking part could enjoy the allergy-free chocolates, while getting a toy to assemble and take home.

PLAYin CHOC is hoping to replicate a similar activity for 2023 as well as ramping up partnerships and activity in travel retail to capture Easter holiday travellers.

 

Comments are closed.


Agreement

To use this website, you must be aged 18 years or over

This will close in 0 seconds