NielsenIQ confectionery monitor: decline in revenues and sales volume

 

Sugar confectionery experienced a mild boost in revenues of 0.4% up to € 823.8 m as the only product group to exceed the previous year’s level, while sales volume nevertheless fell by 1.0% down to 125,600 tonnes. The segments that drove revenues were cough drops (+ 9.7%), chewable bonbons (+ 7.9%), and peppermint bonbons (+ 6.8%), while gelee products (- 19.6%) and puffed rice (- 24.0%) suffered the greatest losses.
The heaviest declines were felt by salty snacks suppliers, with both revenues (- 4.8%; € 1.307 bn) and sales volume (- 5.8%; 154,900 t) trending down. Double-digit revenue drops hit the subsegments salted pretzels (- 11.6%) and crackers (- 10.4%), compensated to some degree by growth in rice snacks (+ 5.8%) and stacked crisps (+ 3.5%).
NielsenIQ’s market researchers also established a decline in the chocolate products category’s development of both revenues (- 3.2%; € 2.564 bn) and sales volume (- 2.8%; 232,800 t). The biggest revenue victims here were cake bars (- 16.3%) and large tablets (- 12.9%). The only shimmer of light in this category was the muesli bar segment (+ 16.0%).
It was a similar story with sweet baked goods, which underwent a downward trend in revenues (- 3.4%; € 639.9 m) and sales volume (- 4.6%; 106,000 t). Weak revenue performance was demonstrated by cookies (- 35.3%) as well as packaged pastry and wafer mixtures (- 14.1%). Positive signals were registered for seasonal baked goods (+ 40.7%) and sandwiched biscuits (+ 11.7%).
Drug stores emerged as the only sales channel to experience growth in the first four months of 2022, with an increase of 7.2% (+ € 18.7 m). Small supermarkets (- 1.9%; - € 0.8 m), large supermarkets (- 8.9%; - € 37.2 m), small consumer markets (- 3.6%; - € 44.7 m), discounters (- 2.2%; - € 52.6 m), and large consumer markets (- 4.7%; - € 52.8 m) all remained below the value levels achieved in the previous year.