sales up big, but units up barely. it&39s a general refrain in the candy type this year as the market corrects to last year&39s price hikes. in 2011, the sales of cstore dollar increased more than 7 for nonchocolate and more than 9 for chocolate, as per the symphonyiri group data. still unit sales increased less than 2. lance smith is a category manager for candy for mclane co., which is located in temple, texas. lance estimates prices exaggerated about 8 for nonchocolate and chocolate. if that&39s the situation, and if a retailer didn&39t experience an 8 jump in dollars sales, then undoubtedly they&39re not outpacing inflation, mentions smith. this year, the commodity crush as well as subsequent price spike of 2011 is not repeating itself. however, other factors are pressurizing the manufacturers to switch up both packaging and pricing. in 2011, producers, due to the continued pressure of commodity pricing, ultimately served recessionfluffed up consumers a price increase. many big manufacturers made considerable increases in 2011 in the expectation of projecting what their prices were going to be down the road. therefore, dollarsales boosts at the checkout greatly surpassed how many units were really moving. in the meantime, many commodities released their hold in the first half, resulted in putting industry experts at ease. smith says that based on current market conditions and data, they do not predict another confectionary price increase in 2012. other factors are also challenging pricing and packaging in the candy category. sugar has been titled as public enemy no. 1 as new york city mayor michael bloomberg and first lady michelle obama press on with their fight against childhood obesity. in reaction, mentions marcia mogelonsky, who is the director of insights for mintel food & drink, various major producers are making shifts to "get on the lobby before they get pushed onto it." j&j snack foods prolongs to roll out betterforyou items, such as allnatural whole fruit bars and baked pretzels. this year, it is introducing a 51 wholegrain cinnamon roll and a nosodium wholegrain gourmet pretzel roll. in february, mars made a commitment, by the end of 2013, not to transport any chocolate stuff that exceeds 250 calories per portion, as per a company release. it also changed from the kingsized bars to multipiece packaging meant for sharing or portioning, labeled 4togo, 2togo and sharing size. some are surprised due to the move away from kingsized bars because of the subcategory&39s ongoing rise in sales. unit sales of kingsized chocolate increased more than 11 last year, as per the nielsen data, whilst sales of standardsized bars felled nearly 3. robert perkins is the vice president of marketing for rutter&rsquos farm stores, which is located in york, pa. he has seen a huge growth in sales of kingsized candy. he said that it is growing much more than standard sized bars. however, in ratio, they still sell quite a bit more standardsized as compared to the king sized. he further said that a lot of producers are looking at packaging and size as a way to put off retail increases, as producers always fear retail increases. which points to possibly the most provocative category in the candy category gum. unit sales carry on to slump, because gum&39s cost point at cstores is ever more difficult for the customer to swallow. smith says that when a customer walks in and sees that they can purchase a kingsized chocolate bar for less than the cost of gum, crisp data undoubtedly points to what buying decision many customers are currently making, and the numbers aren&39t manipulated. last year, neither wrigley nor cadbury took any cost increases. instead, the companies are introducing prepriced gum packs to attempt to induce trial. smith says that, with the launch of cadbury&39s stride brand as well as wrigley&39s 5 brand into a prepriced size and format, one would anticipate to see better trial, and consequently that trial should derive an increase in unit sales. he further mentioned that it&39s going to take a large share of unit sales to recompense for the retail price tradedown or view of such. dave lau is a merchandising manager for rutter. lau said that when they want to trim the package and regulate the retail &hellip that starts to make customers a little fidgety. lau further added that producers have to sell lots of units to make the type of profit they make on a nonprepriced pack of gum, and it is not an easy decision. for the retailer, it upsets to take something that is marked at 59 cents to 1.99. however, the producers&rsquo point, it&39s an inactive category which requires some serious trial. smith says that many retailers are already purchasing wrigley&39s prepriced gum, and on the top of that, it is one of their best unitmoving skus. if looked at it from that standpoint, purchases of prepriced gum are already occurring. by putting top flavours and brands at that price point, smith expects to see a helpful impact to the subcategory of gum. source of information httpwww.cspnet.comnewssnacksandcandyarticlescandyfacespricepackagingshifts
