IRI: confectionery braves summer heatwave

After getting off to a solid start in the first half of 2013, confectionery sales continued to remain stable during July and August, despite the summer heatwave. The latest IRI Monitor confirms that German retail sales for the first eight months of 2013 rose 1.3% to total € 7.284 bn. Sales volume dipped 0.5% to 1.078 m tonnes (food retail stores + drugstores + discounters + forecourt). A breakdown of cumulative data up until August 2013 reveals a 2.8% dip in chocolate confectionery sales (not counting chilled bars and seasonal) down to € 2.778 bn.

As regards individual product categories, chocolate snack bars suffered the steepest decline (- 6.7%). Overall chocolate tablet sales slid 1.4%, although small sized tablets chalked up growth of 9.2%. In terms of percentages, fastest growth was reported for dry baked goods (+ 4.8%, € 2.821 bn). As usual, the salty snack category was the key driver (+ 7.4%). Sugar confectionery sales were also considerably up on the previous year, totalling € 1.148 bn (+ 4.7%). Best performers here were sweets (+ 5.1%) and mallows (+ 10.2%). 2013 Easter sales were up 1.5% to € 376.5 m in value, while volume rose 0.4% to 32,675 tonnes.

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