As summer arrives and more customers return to their pre-pandemic routines, candy sales at convenience stores are reaping the rewards.
Candy dollar sales in every subcategory are trending upward, from gum and mints to chocolate and confection. According to NielsenIQ Total Convenience data, confection, gum and mints sales growth is outpacing that of chocolate, with confection and gum each increasing by over 15% for the 52 weeks ending April 30, 2022.
Still, chocolate remains the most popular segment in the category, with $2.95 billion in sales for the period. That is an increase of 7.6% compared to the previous year.
In this same period, retailers have seen a 15.5% increase in confection sales, a 15.3% rise in gum sales and a 13.5% uptick in mint sales.
Overall, dollar sales for the candy, gum and mint category as a whole are trending upward at a high rate, with a total positive change of 11.8% for c-store retailers across the U.S.
Many of these trends, especially in the case of gum and mints, can be attributed to an increasing number of people around the country returning to their pre-pandemic lifestyles. Still, the trend in this category is staying consistent with fruit flavors increasing and mint flavors decreasing.
Peg Bags See Growth
“In our candy year to date, units are up 5%,” said Raul Buenrostro, director of retail marketing at Friendly Express. “Mints seem to continue on the decline year over year. Our biggest growth has come out of the peg (bag) candy and gum. The gum category could primarily be driven by the workforce going back to their offices.”
Friendly Express, with 35 stores in Georgia, has seen an increase in candy sales despite supply chain issues and manufacturer fill rates suffering.
“At the start of the year, most manufacturers had fill rates below 70% for the first three months of the year in key items,” said Buenrostro. “That affected the overall growth of the category.”
To combat the supply chain issues, however, retailers like Friendly Express have increased and expanded upon peg bag candy sets, which is something that was not being pushed in the past, noted Buenrostro.
Despite the setbacks that many retailers have seen in the past few hectic years, candy sales remain consistently in the positive, leaving retailers optimistic.
“Based on our unit movement, it seems that despite going through this inflation period, the customer will continue to indulge in a candy bar or two,” said Buenrostro.
Higher Margins
Other retailers are seeing increases in categories such as king-sized products, which are currently outpacing single-serve units in sales.
Rotten Robbie, which operates 36 stores in northern California, has seen this trend, especially with non-chocolate peg bag candy and sour-flavored products.
“Sales should be up in retail, but (we are) selling fewer units since vendors are not offering many promotions and most shippers were cancelled for c-stores,” said Jodi Leibowitz, category manager at Rotten Robbie. “I anticipate moving through fewer units, but at higher margins.”
Another subcategory that is trending upward is themed candy sets, especially movie-themed products. According to Leibowitz, as movies continue to come out in the coming months, category managers are sending branding items to stores to sell throughout the summer.
In addition to themed candy packs, retailers can also take advantage of localized products that are curated to each store’s consumers.
“A big move we made is adding a local independent Hispanic candy line,” said Leibowitz. “The margins are great, and it is a great seller and a way to localize the candy selections in our higher Hispanic locations.”
C-store retailers that have thrived from innovative, new products in the category have been hopeful of new products to market in the future. During the past two years, supply chain and manufacturing problems throughout the industry have hindered production of many new products.
Nevertheless, candy sales continue to rise in multiple categories, leaving retailers optimistic for strong summer sales.