A Guide to Snacking: Candy

Some retailers might assume candy sells itself without much effort required on their part. Consumers consistently indicate they enjoy treating themselves to an occasional indulgence and as a category, candy is particularly strong in the convenience channel. However, there are still certain pitfalls to avoid, as well as numerous opportunities to maximize candy sales.

Chocolate bars/packs are still the top moneymaker for the candy category at c-stores, although dollar sales slipped 1.8 percent compared to a year ago, reversing the 1.2-percent improvement from two years ago, according to Nielsen data. In second place, bagged or repackaged peg candy saw strong increases over the last two years, at 16.5 percent and 13.6 percent respectively.

Chocolate bars/packs, non-chocolate bars/packs and candy rolls/mints/drops saw unit volume declines two years in a row. Although gum saw no change during the 52 weeks ended Feb. 14, 2015, it reversed a 6-percent drop from the previous 52 weeks. Bagged or repackaged peg candy and novelties/seasonal were the only segments to post volume growth in both of the last two years.

Candy category share among the competitive channels saw very little change over the past two years. Supermarkets still edge out convenience stores in both dollar share and unit share, by less than 2 percent, while drugstores remain in a distant third place.

Click here to continue reading the “Top Trends in Candy” special feature, published in the May Convenience Store News Guide to Snacking.