Swiss confectioners: decline in turnover despite sales volume increase

Export revenue also decreased, even though sales volumes rose considerably. Overall, the industry held firm in a difficult currency situation. Future challenges are chiefly of a regulatory nature. During 2015, the 14 industrial manufacturers of Swiss confectionery were unable to consolidate the turnover achieved the previous year. Despite a 2.9% sales increase to 33,764 tonnes, sector turnover dropped by 1.6% to CHF 348 m. Domestically, companies in the Swiss confectionery industry sold 9.7% fewer items in 2015 (6,200 tonnes) compared to the previous year. This resulted in a 4.1% turnover decrease to CHF 94 m. The sales volumes in most product categories recorded a negative result at a domestic level.

While the quantity of imported confectionery only dropped by 0.8% last year, the total domestic sales volume (local and imported confectionery) decreased by 3.0%. The more intense decline in domestic ownproduction sales compared to imported volumes saw the local manufacturers’ market share shrink by 7%, i.e. from 25.4% (2014) to 23.6% (2015). Based on domestic confectionery consumption, the average per-capita consumption is 3.17 kg per year, which is 137 g less than the previous year. The proportion of sugar-free items dropped from 20.3% to 19.0%.

Export business saw a sales volume of 27,564 tonnes; corresponding to 6.3% more confectionery sales than the previous year. Yet this only enabled the confectionery industry to record a turnover of CHF 254 m, and therefore a 0.6% loss. Export volumes particularly increased for sugar-coated products (+ 38.0%), jelly sweets and gumdrops (+ 33.4%), and sugar-free products (+ 5.6%). The export share in total production rose from 79.1% to 81.6% as a consequence of the declining sales volumes on the domestic market. 104 countries were supplied with Swiss confectionery in 2015, with Germany (23.5%), USA (22.5%), France (9.9%) and Italy (6.8%) once again the biggest export markets.