IRI: salty snacks and chocolate bars as bright spots

According to the IRI confectionery monitor, earnings sank through the end of April by 0.9% to € 4.139 bn (without chewing gum and without season). Sales volume fell by 2.8% to 559,389 tonnes (basis: food retailers + drug stores + hard discounters + gas station shops). The salty snacks category remained on course for growth, registering added revenues of 5.5% up to € 1.033 bn with sales volume of 130,371 tonnes IRI: salty snacks and chocolate bars as bright spots (+ 2.4%). Chocolate products (without season), the strongest sales category, declined at € 1.739 bn (- 2.2%), with the sales quantity falling by 3.0% down to 172,930 tonnes.

Chocolate tablets (revenue - 5.0%; sales - 4.1%) and pralines (- 5.3%; - 7.9%) were the biggest losers here. Chocolate bars emerged as a bright spot in this category with positive development (+ 4.3%; + 2.1%). Suppliers of sweet baked goods & cakes suffered revenues falling by 2.5% to € 720 m with reduced sales volume of 4.3% down to 138,794 tonnes. Losses were even greater among sugar confectionery with revenues of € 647.6 m (- 5.0%) and sales volume of 117,293 tonnes (- 6.2%). For the chewing gum segment through April IRI registered revenues reduced by 4.0% down to € 158.6 m with a decline in sales volume of 5.9% down to 109.5 million pieces. Easter seasonal business (February - April 2017/18) earnings of € 472.4 m represented a mild drop of 0.9%, while sales volume of 31,330 tonnes was up by 1.3% over the level of the previous year.