Snack And Sugar Highs

CSNews recounts the latest trends seen and sampled at the 2011 Sweets & Snacks Expo

When convenience store customers go to their happy place in-store, chances are it's in the candy aisle or at a candy display. "Even in a bad situation or on a bad day, candy is fun; it is the only true happy category in a convenience store," Jim Callahan, director of marketing for Geo H. Green Oil Co. in Fairburn, Ga., said as he looked through the New Product Showcase at the 2011 Sweets & Snacks Expo, sponsored by the National Confectioners Association (NCA), held May 24-26 in Chicago.

Callahan told CSNews he was so inspired by the innovation seen at the show, "it makes me want to put in a year-round four-to-six-foot section in my truck stops" that would feature a variety of new confections and snacks ranging from kid items to gift items to healthy items. "I'm inspired because there's so much genius here," he said.

Mark Jackson, buyer for Kolkhorst Petroleum, based in Novasota, Texas, with 14 stores, said he comes to the show eager to discover new items. "Our stores have to have fun," he said. "Our candy mix changes 40 percent every year. That's why I'm here, to look for innovation and get it out in our stores."

Jackson raises the appeal of new candy and snack items by sampling them at the checkout counter, with the packaging in full view.

Some of the inspiring trends that took shape at this year's Sweets & Snacks Expo were:

It's a Stick-Up — Candy in stick form is making a comeback from the days of old and targeting nostalgic adults. Gillian's Swirled Candy Sticks come in the fruit flavors of cherry, watermelon, sour apple, blueberry and peaches and cream.

Also seen at the show were: Pocky chocolate cream-covered biscuit sticks, which are manufactured in Japan. Dorvals's Extra Dark solid chocolate sticks are made with 62 percent cocoa. SweetWorks' Ovation cappuccino/ dark chocolate sticks are individually wrapped, made with real coffee beans and 100 percent all-natural. They are touted as a wonderful complement to coffee and ice cream, or to enjoy on their own.

Shock Value — Kids are a sure magnet for the wild names and flavors that candy companies keep dreaming up. This year, candies and snacks that fit the shock bill were Farts Candy by Leaf Brands, Toxic Waste brand's Sour Smog Balls, Uglis by Yumnuts, and the return of the original wild flavors of Jelly Belly's Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean. Inspired by the "Harry Potter" series, returning flavors include grass, soap, sausage, dirt, black pepper and even rotten egg. A Jelly Belly spokesperson said, "all these flavors taste exactly as they're named. It's a very shocking experience."

Farts Candy consists of chewy candy nuggets in fruit flavors. "We decided on the name 'Farts' because you can't help but giggle and smile when you hear it," said Leaf Brands CEO Ellia Kassoff. "To us, the candies look like little poofs."

Yumnuts Uglis are not afraid to be called ugly because they are developed on the simple principle that companies should not put harmful dyes and ingredients into food to make it look pretty. They consist of a dark chocolate shell over a dry-roasted peanut or almond. The product is light, thin and crunchy and is touted to contain 50 percent less sugar than Peanut M&Ms.

Chocolate-Dipped — Chocolate is a proven confectionery favorite in its own right, but it is appearing more and more as a covering to other treats. Jelly Belly Candy Co. has dipped six of its jelly bean flavors — very cherry, coconut, strawberry, raspberry, orange and mint — into rich dark chocolate to create Chocolate Dips.

Just Born has taken its PEEPS to a new generation of Chocolate Dipped PEEPS with Chocolate Dipped Chicks for Halloween, Chocolate Dipped Caramel Chicks for Christmas and Holiday, and Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Crème Flavored Chicks for Valentine's Day. In single packages for c-stores, "we're doing something we've never done before in the convenience channel — launching in three seasons," Jessica Lang, a spokeswoman for Just Born, told CSNews on the show floor. "C-store buyers are asking for seasonal items and we're seeing them fly off the shelves."

Chocolate-covered pretzels continue to be a hit with FixMix Pretzels, salted sourdough pretzel nuggets hand-drizzled with dark, milk and white chocolates, as well as buttery caramel. Meanwhile, Snyder's of Hanover Inc.'s popular York Peppermint Sandwich Pretzel Dipped, previously available last year to the supermarket trade, is now being rolled out to c-stores in a 3.5-ounce bag.

Seasonal Surge — Just Born's Chocolate Dipped PEEPS, mentioned previously, are just one example of the new convenience-channel-focused seasonal surge seen at the show.

A number of items from Mars are also very much in-season. This includes a Dove Chocolate Roses Valentine display, featuring a cardboard vase that c-stores can put on their counter, offering single-stemmed Dove foil-covered chocolate roses for about $3.99 each. Single-serve Snickers eggs, Milky Way bunnies and Snickers Peanut Butter eggs are also available in counter displays for the Easter holiday. Seasonal figurines with M&Ms inside are novelty items additionally being offered by Mars.

"We never really had a strong seasonal business in c-stores because we didn't have the right items, but now we have the right items," said Larry Lupo, Mars' vice president of sales. He advised c-stores to make the most of seasonal candy by getting in early. For example, "some take Easter items early in January, but most should be taking them on right after Valentine's Day at the latest," he said.

Name Recognition — Candy with "borrowed" winning names is appearing in products such as Bosco bar. As one of the most beloved chocolate syrups, Bosco recently teamed with the Praim Group to launch a 3.5-ounce, all-natural milk chocolate bar, with the iconic logo on its packaging.

Nestlé teamed with Skinny Cow (a popular reduced-calorie ice cream brand) to create Skinny Cow Candy with only 110 to 120 calories in two flavors: Skinny Cow Dreamy Clusters and Skinny Cow Heavenly Crisp candy bars. "It's a great brand with great saturation," Tricia Bowles, Nestle spokeswoman, told CSNews on the show floor. "We expanded on that equity to bring it into the candy aisle."

Sometimes, candy brands team up with other candy brands as well, like CandyRific's new license with PEEPS from Just Born to create Peeps Treats, a crispy rice marshmallow treat in the shape of a bunny or a chick sprinkled with candy.

New Takes on Chocolate — Air Delight by the Hershey Co. offers a light and airy texture, available in take-home bars and Kisses. The company did a lot of testing and based it on similar "aerated chocolate" items that are popular in Canada and Europe. "We've already surpassed projected sales," said Denise Price, manager, planning and analysis, convenience stores, for Hershey. "This is our way of bringing new news now in a format that is tried and true in other countries. Sustainable new items are what we're about."

Meanwhile, Mars' 3 Musketeers Bar is now delivering a "richer chocolate experience," according to the company. And Wonka Chocolate introduced two new chocolate flavors — the Wonka Triple Dazzle Caramel Bar and pieces, filled with buttery caramel and a "dazzle" of sea salt, and the Wonka Fantabulous Fudge Chocolate Bar, which features creamy milk chocolate filled with decadent chocolate fudge.

Also seen at the show were Slumberland Snacks' Sleep Squares, a dietary supplement of chocolate-flavored squares touted to help consumers sleep better. The Adora Calcium and Vitamin D supplements come in premium all-natural milk and dark chocolate flavors and are only 30 calories per serving. In another unique take on chocolate, Galaxies Chocolate Covered Malted Milk Balls are coated with a "shimmery cosmic coating."

Fruit Basket of Flavors — Non-chocolate candies and gum continue to flourish with fruit flavors, such as Au'some 3-Dees gummies, available in orange, strawberry, watermelon and mixed berries flavors. They are available in a peg bag — a packaging format that c-store buyers continue to praise for posting good growth.

"Non-chocolate bagged candy has done 25 percent better in my stores lately," Deborah Katkus, category manager for the West Coast division of Circle K Stores Inc., told CSNews at the expo. "I moved it by the front doors, so that helped it, too."

Strawberry is a popular flavor this year appearing in Wrigley's Orbit Strawberry Remix gum and Ferrero USA Inc.'s Tic Tac Strawberry Fields.

Promotion in Motion's new Juicefuls Juice Filled Fruit Snacks claim to be a "better for you" choice boasting 100-percent real fruit juices, 100 percent of the daily recommended value of Vitamin C and 25 percent of the daily value for Vitamins A and E.

A Sprinkling of Fun — We've all heard of cupcake and ice cream sprinkles, but now the fun colorful mini-confections are appearing on non-chocolate candies in a big way, such as on Face Twisters Ginormous Sour Tower of sour-filled strawberry taffy and on Au'some's Super Mario Snerdles candied fruit strips.

Nutty and Seedy — Nuts and seeds are sprouting up in sweet and savory flavors, like Yumnuts Chocolate Cashews and P-Nuttles Chili-Lime butter toffee peanuts.

"Better-for-you" packs of nuts with specific nutritional slants are available from Kraft Foods, such as Planters NUTrition Omega-3 Mix and South Beach Diet Mix.

Perhaps the newest seed to get attention is that from a watermelon. Jim Hachtel, senior category manager at ampm, told CSNews that Good Sense Premium Watermelon Seeds was "the best product I saw at the show." They are available in a roasted and salted SKU and a spicy SKU, according to the retail buyer. "I liked them a lot."

Convenient Merchandising — Not to be left out of the innovation, merchandising ideas specifically geared for c-stores could be found at the show, too. Mars now offers "Mod Pods," or as Lupo described them, "multiple opportunity displays," which include a beverage cooler shelf display with a suction cup that allows chocolate candy bars, for example, to be chandised cold in the beverage section and a rolling shelf display to be used in an aisle or end-of-aisle. "We're telling retailers how to use them at multiple points of interruption to get more candy sales," he said. "Utilizing just a little bit of air space they can get all these additional sales."

From Midway Displays comes an entire line of stock displays and components that can give even a one-store convenience operation the ability to purchase custom-made displays for candy and snacks, thanks to the components being interchangeable and always in stock. "We have an assortment that will fit most c-stores and if they want one to 10, then can just order it online and we'll ship it to them," company spokesperson Marco Prete, told CSNews at the NCA show.

Inline Plastics Corp. unveiled its Hangables packaging that enables a c-store to get involved in bulk merchandising or the re-packaging of candy for sale in-store. The new version of its Safe-T-Fresh container line features a molded-in hang tab to enable merchandising on racks and pegboard displays throughout the store. It incorporates a tamper-resistant locking mechanism and a unique patented tear-strip hinge that eliminates the need for shrink-bands or wraparound labels to prevent product tampering.

"C-stores can buy prepackaged or bulk candy, package it in these containers and put it out on racks or right at the counter using their own labels," said Herb Knutson, director of marketing. "Consumers love to see what they're getting — there's nothing like clear packaging."

For comments, please contact Renée M. Covino, Contributing Editor, at [email protected].

Candy and Snacks by the Numbers

Even during a sluggish economy, confections and snacks generate positive sales numbers.

• The confectionery industry logged a 3.6-percent sales gain in 2010 compared to the prior year.
• Salty snacks posted a 2-percent gain.
• The cookie category managed a 0.5-percent increase.
• Multi-count and snack-sized packages to keep at home grew 8 percent.
• Gummy and chewy candies were up nearly 5 percent.
• Licorice products continue to grow, up by nearly 3 percent.
• Non-chocolate Easter candy grew 21 percent.
• Chocolate products for Easter, Halloween and Christmas grew 5 percent.

Source: Symphony IRI and NCA data

Innovation by the Numbers

In 2010, thousands of new confectionery and snack products debuted to meet consumer demand for innovation.

Chocolate: 1,480 new items

Non-chocolate: 1,077

Gum: 98

Cookies: 786

Crackers: 259

Potato chips: 526

Popcorn: 237

Nuts and seeds: 308

Cereal bars: 550

Other snacks (pretzels, tortilla chips, puffed snacks, fruit snacks, meat snacks, etc.): 1,139

Source: Datamonitor's Product Launch Analytics online database of new U.S. products, SKUs 2010

New Concept Winners

The National Confectioners Association's (NCA) 2011 Sweets & Snacks Expo held its second annual Buyers Choice awards at the show. Best new concepts were voted on the first day of the show and the winners were announced the following day.

Best New Concept Winners in the New Product Showcase were:

• 2 Chicks with Chocolate — The Wine Collection
• Albanese Confectionery — Awesome Blossoms They're Bloomin' Fantastic
• Farley's & Sathers Candy Co. — Trolli Big Bold Bears
• Food Market Merchandising Inc. — Got Milk? Magic Milk Flavoring Straws
• Jelly Belly candy Co. — Jelly Belly Chocolate Dips

Best New Concept Winners at the Magic of Merchandising Gallery were:

• Food Market Merchandising Inc.
• Jelly Belly Candy Co.
• Squire Boone Village