Corporate Profiles - 2020 - 46

INDUSTRY REVIEW: CONFECTIONERY

call. "Trick-or-treating represents the other 50% of the season with sales
concentrated in the last two weeks of October.
"While research indicates trick-or-treating participation will likely be below
prior-year levels due to COVID-19 concerns, the expectation of this holiday
tradition has been consistently improving over the past several weeks. We expect to outperform the category, given our iconic brands, strong innovation and
merchandising and great execution."
Mars, Inc., meanwhile, prepared for a variety of outcomes for Oct. 31, said
Timothy LeBel, president of sales for Mars Wrigley.
"We typically begin the planning process for Halloween about two
years out, and this year, we obviously had to pivot quickly so our communities can keep their traditions while also planning to celebrate as safely
as possible," Mr. LeBel said. "We've worked across different functions to
plan for a few different scenarios. In 2020, we'll be focusing on solutions like working with community leaders and health experts to ensure
a safe Halloween season, creating a fun and innovative virtual trick-ortreat experience, and offering some fan-favorite seasonal innovations
like the return of Zombie Skittles and M&M's Ghoul Mix."

LEADING

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

William Wrigley Jr. Co.
Mondelez International, Inc.
The Hershey Co.
Perfetti Van Melle
Ferrero USA, Inc.
Project 7, Inc.
The Pur Co., Inc.
The Topps Co., Inc.
Xlear, Inc.
Starbucks Coffee Co.
Total

LEADING

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

sugarless gum vendors
Dollar sales
$893,923,058
$291,496,942
$227,275,288
$181,758,848
$13,723,440
$4,201,822
$2,429,184
$439,917
$375,895
$371,153
$1,617,052,226

% change
from
year ago
-5.7%
-18.9%
-5.0%
-10.7%
-60.0%
-34.2%
7.0%
-20.8%
-9.7%
-22.8%
-9.9%

sugarless gum brands

Wrigley's Extra
Ice Breakers Ice Cubes
Trident
Orbit
Mentos Pure Fresh
Wrigley's Eclipse
Wrigley's 5 Cobalt
Wrigley's 5 Rain
Wrigley's Extra Refreshers
Trident White
Total

Dollar sales
$382,824,071
$227,262,673
$195,251,624
$170,998,396
$134,948,915
$71,756,364
$67,061,753
$54,269,091
$33,471,170
$32,161,389
$1,617,052,226

% change
from
year ago
-1.5%
-5.0%
-17.1%
-11.6%
-10.6%
-20.8%
-4.6%
-6.8%
533.9%
-16.8%
-9.9%

Data for 52 weeks ended July 12, 2020
Total US - Multi-outlet with C-Store (Supermarkets, Drugstores and Mass Market Retailers,
Gas/C-Stores, Military Commissaries and Select Club & Dollar Retail Chains)
Source: Information Resources, Inc.

46 \ October 2020

Another segment impacted by the pandemic was gum and mints. The
category continued to decline during the month of June, with sales down
20% to 25%, Ms. Buck said during Hershey's earnings call.
"Our business has trended relatively in line with the category," she said. "We
expect category trends to remain challenged until social distancing guidelines relax."

SUGAR REDUCTION IN FOCUS
The industry's marquee event, the Sweets and Snacks Expo, is usually held
in May and was canceled this year, limiting opportunities for manufacturers
to showcase the latest innovations in chocolate and candy. New products
launched from a growing number of smaller players this year largely focused
on reduced-sugar formulations.
Sonoma Brands, the maker of Smashmallow, introduced a line of better-foryou gummy snacks featuring 3 grams of sugar per serving. Smashgummy is
available in two varieties: a fruit-inspired medley of strawberry, cherry, orange
and peach flavors, and a sour collection of watermelon, lemon, raspberry and
green apple flavors.
Smart Sweets expanded its portfolio of low-sugar candies with the debut of
Sweet Chews, which are sweetened with the rare sugar allulose and contain
3 grams of sugar per serving. The individually wrapped chews feature mango,
strawberry and watermelon flavors.
Lily's Sweets introduced no-added-sugar confections, including chocolatecovered caramels and three new chocolate bar varieties. All products are sweetened with stevia.
Behave Foods Inc., a New York-based startup, debuted reduced-sugar gummy bears, which are sweetened with monk fruit and chicory root fiber and
feature lychee, passionfruit and raspberry flavors.
Project 7, Inc. rolled out sour fruit gummies and gummy bears sweetened
with allulose and containing 3 grams of sugar per bag.

MASHUPS AND MULTIPLE TEXTURES
New products from the market leaders include flavor mashups and multiple textures. Mars announced plans to introduce Snickers Peanut Brownie, a
chocolate bar with caramel and a chewy peanut brownie filling. Mocha meets
chocolate in a new mashup offering from Hershey. Following last year's successful launch of the Kit Kat Duos Mint + Dark Chocolate bar, the brand is
adding a second Kit Kat Duos variety, featuring crisp wafers in mocha crème
with coffee bits and chocolate. Over the past year, the Kit Kat brand introduced such limited-edition flavors as birthday cake, pumpkin pie, raspberry
crème, apple pie, lemon crisp and, for Halloween, a marshmallow-flavored
Witch's Brew variety.
New from Ferrara Candy Co. are Nerds Gummy Clusters, which feature a
fruity gummy center coated with crunchy, tangy Nerds candies.
"Nerds has driven significant growth in the past year, and with research
showing that consumers are seeking fun and multi-textured candy, our
team came together to deliver the fun of our Nerds candy in an innovative
and poppable way," said Katie Duffy, vice president of marketing at Ferrara
Candy Co. CP

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Corporate Profiles - 2020

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