Magazine: Holidays dipped in chocolate

Kitti Végh
brand manager
Nestlé Hungária

Even manufacturers were surprised by the sales performance of seasonal confectionery products at the end of 2017. Kitti Végh, brand manager (confectionery) of Nestlé Hungária told that sales of pralines and hollow chocolate figures had increased by two-digit numbers in the second half of 2017. The share of the discount supermarket channel in praline and chocolate figure sales grew to the detriment of hyper- and supermarkets.

Kolos Kelényi
member of the board of directors
Szamos Holding

Kolos Kelényi, a member of the board of directors at Szamos Holding Zrt. informed: sales of premium sweets have kept increasing in the last 6-7 years. This is a good trend for every manufacturer and retailer that makes an effort to persuade shoppers to buy high-quality products.

Sándor Sánta
managing director
Chocco Garden

Sándor Sánta, managing director of Chocco Garden Kft. and president of the Association of Hungarian Confectionery Manufacturers revealed that the prices of cocoa and sugar had been low last year, but this year they started to rise again. He added that the proportion of products made from real chocolate had reached 95 percent.

Marianna Rácsai
sales manager
Lissé Édességgyár

Marianna Rácsai, Lissé Édességgyár Kft.’s sales manager told Trade magazin that her company – they are one of the biggest private label chocolate figure manufacturers – only uses high-quality ingredients in production, e.g. Belgian chocolate, UTZ-certified cocoa, ripe fruits, etc.

Ms Végh’s experience is that chocolate figures other than Santa Claus, seasonal bags filled with sweets and other products offered in combination see their popularity growing. Shoppers are looking for more and more premium products every year, but classic products have also remained popular. At the end of 2018 BOCI Santa Claus figures will return with a completely new look. Under the SMARTIES brand special, ‘new-wave’ winter figures will turn up on store shelves.

Sales of Szamos praline Christmas fondant candies were flying high last year. The company doesn’t only sell a lot of these for home consumption but also as a business gift. Which are the most popular flavours? Mr Kelényi’s answer is that there are constant favourites such as marzipan and the marzipan-fruit combination. At the same time novelties such as salty almond or the Christmas fondant candy version of the Harcipán energy bar were also very welcome by consumers. The popularity of sugar-free and other ‘free-from’ products has also been growing at Szamos. Szamos is preparing for the Christmas season with two new Christmas fondant candy flavours, which will also be a surprise shape-wise. The company is manufacturing private label products too, but only premium-quality ones.

Seasonal confectionery sales of Chocco Garden grew by 3-7 percent (depending on the product group) last year. One of the company’s most popular Christmas fondant candy varieties is jelly – these are coated with 20 percent more high-quality dark chocolate than the average fondant candy and the jelly is made with real fruit juice. As for channels of retail, hypermarkets and discount stores are the most import – revealed Mr Sánta. This year’s new product is cocoa-rum Christmas fondant candy, which is made with premium dark chocolate, with 60-percent cocoa content.

Last year Lissé created the FitBite product range to satisfy the growing demand for lactose-, gluten- and sugar-free Christmas fondant candies. This product line offers 6 flavour combinations (jelly, rum-cocoa, coconut, caramel-hazelnut, strawberry cream and hazelnut cream). All of them are gluten- and sugar-free, but there are also lactose-free and vegan products among them. They only contain natural sweeteners and are rich in nutritional fibres, plus their fruit content is more than 20 percent. The products are made with sugar-free milk and dark chocolate. //