On behalf of Sweets Global Network, the market research company, Nielsen carried out a survey of the sweets and snacks markets in twelve European markets, which confirms the ongoing trend towards snack specialties. The association is announcing the results in the run-up to ISM 2018, the world’s largest and most important trade fair for sweets and snacks.
Sweets and snacks go healthy
The sweets and snack market in Europe grew slightly in the 52 weeks between November 2016 and November 2017, mainly due to price increases. This was reported by Nielsen, which examined the markets in twelve European countries on behalf of Sweets Global Network. Hereby, the international category defined by Nielsen as healthier snacks determined the development. Over the last two years, this product group, which encompasses snack bars (including cereal, energy, sports and fruit bars) as well as nuts and seeds, increased in terms of both volume and value.
Increased prices
Nielsen studied the market development for the rolling year in the countries Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Austria, Poland and Turkey. In total, the overall category (sweets and snacks) recorded a slight increase in turnover of 2.1% up to euro 53.8 billion, whereby this is mainly due to increased prices (+1.6%). Across the overall market, only Spain (+3.6%), Portugal (+2.2%) and Austria (+2.0%) were able to record volume increases, so that only a 0.5% increase in the volume was achieved for the twelve countries in total.
Individual segments and countries
If one looks at the individual segments, the snack bar achieved a 6.9% increase in turnover (volume +5.8%) for the rolling year, nuts and seeds achieved a 4.9% increase in both quantity and value. For the remaining sweets the increase was only 1.7%. As such, the sector of healthier snack specialties in the meantime turns over euro 6.5 billion and has thus increased its share of the value within the European sweets and snacks market by 10.9% up to 12.1% within two years. In detail, Great Britain with an 8.7% increase in turnover for snack bars (volume +5.7%), Germany with +7.4% (volume +5.8%) as well as the Netherlands (+8.7%) and Poland (+16.5%) were responsible for the growth impulses. In the case of nuts and seeds, Spain with an increase of 9.2% (volume +7.2%), Austria (+10.4%), Turkey (+21.6%) and Portugal (+8.8%) were the growth drivers. In Germany in spite of a 5.6% increase in sales, price reductions led to the turnovers only lying 1.7 percent above the previous year level. The situation is similar for Italy, which recorded a clear increase in volume (+11.7%) but had to cope with price reductions of 3.5%.