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TOP PERFORMERS
HONORABLE MENTIONS
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Sweet snacks purchases are on the rise at convenience stores creating new sales opportunities across all dayparts. Packaged sweets accounted for 2.6% of the $114,010 stores acquired through average monthly sales in 2008, according to the NACS 2009 State of the Industry report. The category ranked ninth on the list of 10 top merchandise categories sorted by profit, showing that even as health trends grow, consumers still want to satisfy their sweet tooth.
In fact, experts suggest that during tough economic times, customers tend to reward themselves with inexpensive indulgences, such as sweet snacks. In 2008, per store, packaged sweet snacks brought in $2,141 in monthly sales, $726 in monthly profit and had a 33.9% 2008 gross margin. The category saw a sales growth of 4.3% and a profit growth of 12.3%.
CSD’s 2010 Brand Preference Study surveyed 61 key decision makers representing 61 c-store chains about the sweet snacks category. Buyers reported that the top performers in the category were Oreo (Nabisco/Kraft), Kellogg’s/Keebler and Chips Ahoy (Nabisco/Kraft), with honorable mentions for Bon Appetit, Mrs. Freshley’s (Flowers Foods) and Prairie City Bakery.
In the last 60 days, 39% of buyers reported seeing one to two sales presentations by sweet snack manufacturers, while 20% said they were visited by three or four companies and 21% were visited by five or more. Surprising, while the category is poised for growth in 2010, 20% of the respondents reported no sales presentations from sweet snack suppliers in the last two months. In all, 79% of buyers reported less than five presentations from the 17 companies in the market.
