Nielsen confectionery monitor: dream start for salty snacks

Sales volume increased over the same period last year by 5.6% up to 1.748 bn packages (basis: grocery retail + drug stores).
The salty snacks category even topped the significant revenue increase rate of growth from 2020 (+ 12.7%) by the start of the new year, with € 687.9 m representing growth of 14.1%. The Nielsen researchers cite an increase in sales volume of 13.0% up to 480.6 m packages. The segments driving this revenue were tortillas (+ 26.0%), snack specialities (+ 24.9%), premium nuts (+ 17.9%) and salted pretzels (+ 16.2%).
Chocolate products, the largest product group, also experienced above-average growth in revenues (+ 8.1%; € 1.063 bn) and sales volume (+ 7.8%; 694.1 m packages). The highest rates of increase in sales earnings were achieved by cake bars (+ 18.6%), 100 g chocolate tablets (+ 17.5%), chocolate bars (+ 9.9%) and chocolate snack articles (+ 8.6%).
The revenues in the product class sweet baked goods exceeded the level of the previous year by 8.6% (€ 322.4 m) with an increase in sales volume of 6.3% (233.3 m packages). Revenue growth was driven here in particular by the segments miscellaneous baked goods with chocolate (+ 18.2%), miscellaneous (+ 17.3%), chocolate shortbread (+ 17.2%) and miscellaneous baked goods without chocolate (+ 16.8%).
In contrast, sugar confectionery got off to a rough start into 2021, with sensitive declines in value (- 6.6%; € 405.1 m) and quantity (- 7.2%; 340.1 m packages). Significant revenue losses with chewing gum (- 18.4%), cough drops (- 17.1%) and fruit bonbons (- 10.5%) were unable to be compensated by the other segments.
Increases in confectionery revenues were achieved in the sales channels of small consumer markets (+ 10.4%), discounters overall (+ 7.7%), large consumer markets (+ 6.3%) and large supermarkets (+ 4.7%). Confectionery sales declined in small supermarkets (- 5.8%) and drug stores (- 3.3 %).