Nielsen confectionery monitor: notable revenue and sales volume growth in 2020

The salty snacks category, which had already been a growth engine for the entire confectionery sector, profited the most from the emergency situation with the Corona pandemic. Revenues in this category compared with the previous year climbed by 12.7% up to € 3.6 bn (sales volume: + 11.4%; 448,100 t). The salty snacks segments that achieved the highest rates of increased revenues were tortillas (+ 23.5%), snack specialities (+ 18.8%), crackers (+ 17.0%) and premium nuts (+ 16.9%). 

The baked goods category also attained above-average growth: € 2.1 bn signalled an increase in earnings of 7.8% (sales volume: + 6.9%; 383,900 t). The strongest revenue growth drivers here were wafers without chocolate (+ 15.3%), miscellaneous (+ 13.8%), miscellaneous baked goods with chocolate (+ 13.7%) and chocolate shortbread (+ 13.2%).
According to the Nielsen market researchers, chocolate products, the largest category, achieved a revenue increase of 5.8% up to € 7.1 bn (sales volume: + 5.8%; 670,000 t), driven by the segments cake bars (+ 15.4%), 100 g chocolate tablets (+ 14.8%), chocolate bars (+ 11.1%) and chocolate snack articles (+ 7.3%).
The Nielsen team reports that sugar confectionery sales came in at € 2.3 bn, remaining at 2.4% below the level of 2019 (sales volume: + 1.4%; 355,800 t). Good performances by seasonal sugar confectionery (+ 15.6%) as well as fruit and wine gums/foam gums/liquorice (+ 7.5%) were nevertheless not able to fully compensate the sensitive revenue declines in fruit bonbons (- 8.3%), cough drops (- 10.0%) and chewing gum (- 14.5%).

Here’s a look at the individual 2020 confectionery sales channels: Small consumer markets (+ 9.8%), discounters (+ 6.4%), large consumer markets (+ 5.3%) and large supermarkets (+ 5.0%) clearly exceeded the previous year’s values. Revenue declines were suffered in small supermarkets (- 5.5%) and drug stores (- 1.2%).