SymphonyIRIGroup confectionery monitor: May and June heat slows sales in Germany

Warm weather in May and June 2011 clearly impacted negatively on German retail sales of confectionery. According to the SymphonyIRIGroup, while sales for the first four months of the year grew 1.4%, cumulative growth dwindled to - 0.6% by June 2011, with sales down to € 5.415 bn (food retail stores + drugstores + hard discount + impulse). First half year sales volume totalled 811,202 tonnes, 1.8% less than in 2010.

According to the figures published by the market researchers, dry baked goods was the only overall category to avoid a slide between January and June, matching last year`s sales of € 1.779 bn. Even sales of salty snacks, which had performed well up until May, slowed a little, with growth of only 1.2%. Cake/gateaux sales dipped dramatically by 4.1%. Sales of chocolate (not including chilled bars and seasonal) – the biggest confectionery segment – declined 1.1%, down to € 2.246 bn. Chocolate bar sales were up minimally, by 0.3%. Chocolate tablets lost out considerably (- 2.3%) – the steepest decline in terms of percentages – with smaller sized tablet sales dipping 8.5%. Chocolates (- 0.5%) suffered less damage due primarly to the good performance of assorted chocolates (+ 2.5%) and liqueur chocolates (+ 1.0%).

Sugar confectionery sales were worth € 822.7 m, 1.1% down on the first half of 2010. A glance at individual product categories reveals sales of fruit gums/mallows/liquorice grew 2.0%; however that was not enough to compensate for the 2.7% drop in sales of sweets. Easter seasonal sales were satisfactory, according to the SymphonyIRIGroup data, with 37,095 tonnes (+1.3%) of Easter confectionery worth € 432.1 m (+0.8%) sold by German retailers.