Would you like plastic with that?

The annual report on Easter egg packagng is out once again, thanks to Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson. Apparently in the UK, we still place 3,000 tonnes of waste into landfill, having unwrapped and enjoyed our Easter eggs.

The worst offenders were reported to be Thorntons and Marks and Spencer, still using too much plastic when packaging their Easter egg range. Nestle, Mars and Cadbury however were praised for greatly improving the situation and working with much more cardboard. Indeed Nestle recently announced that the packaging in its 2012 Easter egg range is 100% recyclable – a bold statement if ever there was one! 

The confectionery industry must take responsibility for its potential to make landfill waste, as should many other grocery industries. It is clearly a tricky balance between good presentation, safe transportation and cost management on the one side and minimising waste on the other. But if Nestle can do it…?

I guess the challenge is that confectionery shoppers, who more often than not are purchasing on impulse, do not necessarily stop and think “No! I won’t buy this one because I cannot recycle the plastic!” If the price, presentation and content fit the bill, the quick answer is just to buy it and be done. Can we blame ourselves when life is so busy and budgets are squeezed?

I would be interested to hear from any retailers that feel their customers do prioritise this issue at shelf level. Perhaps you use it as a USP for your Easter egg range?

So whilst we bash the big manufacturers and retailers over the head for producing too much landfill waste, are we as shoppers truly voting with our purchases to demand confectionery and indeed Easter eggs that are packaged with the environment in mind?

www.sweetretailing.co.uk

Is UK confectionery doomed?

A recently published NHS report found that between 1997 and 2010 average consumption of sugar confectionery and chocolate in the UK fell by 39 percent among four to ten year olds and by 35 percent among 11 to 18 year olds.

So the facts suggest that in the UK, children are eating less confectionery. A good thing for childhood health in many ways but is this going to have a significant impact on the growth of the UK confectionery market going forward and is this reduction in childhood consumption really noticeable in all areas?

 

Sweet Retailing recently discussed the new confectionery Key Note report, which certainly suggested good growth for the UK confectionery market throughout 2012 and then a slower rate of growth until 2016.

 

Would it be right to assume that if childhood confectionery consumption is falling, that adult consumption of confectionery in the UK is the significant key to growth? Many of us are certainly turning to our favourite sweeties and chocolates to get us through the economic turmoil! What will we do when the UK economy has bounced back?

 

It’s an interesting one. If children are eating fewer sweets these days, such habits are likely to stay with them as they become adults. Would this suggest that the UK confectionery market is doomed once the next few generations have died off and the children of today have taken our place? Given that confectionery has such a rich and fabulous history in the UK, I would personally find this hard to believe. I am quite sure that the range of confectionery available to us will change and evolve over time but surely the joy of consumption will keep us loving all things sweet for many generations to come? I sincerely hope so!

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American beauties

I’ve just been reviewing some contributions that we have received for an American sweets article that is underway for our Sweet Retailing website – is there no limit to the UK confectionery market?! 

American sweets are clearly a growing confectionery opportunity in the UK and a number of companies have been popping up in the last few years to focus purely on this category, both online and on the high street. The future of the UK confectionery market has plenty of stars and stripes in it! 

 
Confectionery is such an exciting and interesting category to retail in the UK when you choose to look beyond the mainstream brands. I am not saying that the brands should not be considered (some sweet shops intentionally avoid them though) but there is so much more to UK confectionery than the most common brands alone. 

And we all want to buy it right now! Down in the doldrums with the state of the economy, the perfect pick-me-up is our favourite sweets or chocolate bar, even an American chocolate bar it seems. I read some research recently that discovered (somewhat unsurprisingly I thought) we predominantly turn to chocolate (and not fruit!) when we are stressed. How true. 

So confectionery retailers, think creatively, try new things, have fun and look forward to reading our article on the market for American sweets!

www.sweetretailing.co.uk

Chokablok confectionery

Oh dear. It’s been reported that Tesco is to extend its own label Chokablok brand into the confectionery aisle, just in time for the Easter egg onslaught. Previously kept for premium ice creams, the Chokablok brand is to sport a range of premium Easter eggs to include names such as Billionaires Dynamite Egg and Starstruck Supernova Egg. It is also being mooted that Chokablok chocolate bars are to follow.

Well, the Chokablok Easter egg packaging and presentation looks ok actually. Whether shoppers will flock to buy Chokablok eggs instead of the usual Cadbury Buttons, Smarties and the like, only time will tell.  

With regard to the “supermarkets vs. all other confectionery retailers” discussion at Easter time, it certainly confirms that the likes of Tesco are only going to bite in deeper to retain and grow their share. 

But this is shell eggs. There is so much more to Easter confectionery than shell eggs! And if you are a smaller retailer, you only need a small piece of it to really boost your sales during the spring months. So surely it is a case of keeping to your planned path, listening closely to your customers, offering a creative and different range of Easter confectionery whilst leaving the shell egg battle to start and finish in the supermarkets.

Keep up to date on UK confectionery discussion at Sweet Retailing!

Thorntons franchise for £1k

So I hear that troubled chocolatier Thorntons is to reduce its franchsie fee next month down to just £1,000. Yes £1,000! In 2010 this figure stood at £15,000. The chocolate retailer is also bringing in a smaller retail format that could be a chocolate shop within a shop.

Will businesses rush at the opportunity and help to re-invent the Thorntons brand? Could it work to have a small area of your store developed into a Thorntons concession?

I personally thoroughly enjoy many of Thornton's lovely chocolates but I fear that they need to do a bit more to their image and their exclusivity to re-invent themselves. Perhaps this is on the cards too? I do hope so as it would be a terrible shame to see the demise of this long established British chocolate company that has adorned our high streets for such a long time.

Keep up to date on confectionery retailing news and issues at the Sweet Retailing website - this blog is not the half of it!

Silly price season

It's that time of year again when the supermarkets tend to get carried away with their Easter Egg prices. 2012 is not likely to be an exception and if anything, things might be worse if you believe the rumours being mooted about.

Promotions on key brands have already started in earnest, mainly small impulse items at the moment but branded Easter Eggs will be next on the list.

We all like to find a good promotion or bargain these days and if anything, many of us have come to expect it! The supermarkets will once more play to this and use branded chocolate eggs to get us through their doors so that we buy a great deal more as well.

So where does this leave the smaller retailer of confectionery? Well, there is MUCH more to Easter than branded chocolate eggs and that is where such retailers should look to. Take a good look at the supermarkets near you and cross all of their top deals off your stock list. Why bother with them? Specialist confectionery wholesalers can show you many different products to consider selling and then of course you might want to get creative yourself! For example, the British public adore their mini eggs, so why not come up with some novel gifting presentations using this much loved sweet?

To ignore the Easter oportunity is a shame as there is clearly money to be made. A whopping £230m was spent on Easter confectionery last year (up 4.8% year on year). So identify your place in this market and then do it justice, with originality, determination and enthusiasm!

Sweet Retailing can keep you up to date with new confectionery products and even a supplier directory if you want to check out somewhere new.

Cadbury packaging investment

We’ve heard on the grapevine that Cadbury is investing £6m in shelf ready packaging for some of its chocolate bars in addition to creating re-sealable packaging for the Cadbury Dairy Milk bar range. An interesting move. 

Apparently the cases are to be spring loaded so that when a bar is taken out, the next one is pushed forward. Cadbury assures us of greater visibility from the move as the bars will stand up on end, all resulting in increased sales. 

We have more questions than answers at this point.  

• Will this format suit the allocated space in all retailers?
• Will Cadbury still sell the “old style” bars to offer display flexibility?
• Surely one would have to display an entire case to benefit from the spring loading functionality. Not all retailers will have this space?
• Will the price have to go up following the investment?!
• Are we going to see Mars and Nestle follow suit?

This is a really interesting development that might be a real winner for retailers that sell a large amount of branded confectionery from a large display area. It might also give Cadbury a head start on a most creative packaging concept. But will it cause issues for smaller retailers who don’t have the shelf space for full spring loaded cases? As Sweet Retailing learns more, we will certainly keep you posted.