Chocolate leads UK Fairtrade

Publishing its own updated figures today, on the first day of Fairtrade Fortnight, The Fairtrade Foundation has announced that chocolate is now officially the leading Fairtrade category in the UK based on value.

Growing fourfold, the UK Fairtrade chocolate category is now worth an astounding £342 million (2010) which apparently amounts to 2.3 million chocolate bars a day!

Overall, the UK Fairtrade market is worth £1.17 billion (2010), demonstrating growth of 40% in the last year. UK consumer recognition now stands at 74%.

This is a useful addition to the recent article that Sweet Retailing wrote about the opportunity for Fairtrade chocolate. You can read it here if you haven't already... 

Live wholesaler promotions

For those of you who might be keeping an eye on wholesaler promotions, we've just had another look at the suppliers that we are currently linking to on Sweet Retailing. If you are a confectionery wholesaler and we are NOT linking to you, you only have to ask!

HF Chocolates wins the prize at the moment for the most interesting looking promotion. If you stock (or fancy stocking) Quaranta Soft Nougat bars, the company is discounting orders by 10% to 25% depending on volume.

We tend to check out the promotions for you every couple of weeks, in between everything else that goes on with Sweet Retailing. But the links are always there for you to click on. You will need to be registered but that only takes a minute (or less) and simply helps us to understand who is using the site. Just click here to register if you like.

And once registered, you can take a good look at the supplier directory too, packed with confectionery wholesalers, manufacturers of sweets and chocolates, equipment suppliers, vending companies, shop fitters...it's all there if you care to look!

Twelve days on

The "Big Day" was 2 February around 11.30am. Sweet Retailing went live at long last! Initial interest and feedback about the site has been really positive and it can only get better. Thank you and keep it coming!

Within the last twelve days we have added a couple of great articles in the Confectionery Advice section of Sweet Retailing.

Firstly, some great market intelligence from leading provider Mintel. This should be of benefit to many confectionery retailers who wish to understand the bigger picture.

Secondly, an ever growing table of media campaigns in the confectionery industry that are live right now. Instead of giving you reems to take in, we intend to maintain a constantly updating table of the key facts for each campaign so that you can use it check that, if you stock such products, you are making the most of the opportunity. Did you know that currently, no less than £34.2 million is being invested in media by confectionery manufacturers?

A bit of trivia, the most read article is currently the profile on Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe. This tells the story of how Martin Peet has successfully grown the company into a franchise of 100 sweet shops. The speed he is going, that is probably closer to 105 by now!

We are working on a few more Sweet Talk articles at the moment, having received some fresh contact from a number of suppliers. Do get in touch if you have something to say, whether you are a small specialist confectionery supplier or a large international organisation. Unusually for many, we love it when the emails ping in!