New products: Confectionery giants go head to head

Confectionery giants Mondelez International and Mars Wrigley Confectionery (MWC) go head to head trying to win the hearts of c-store shoppers with new products. Mondelez has added a 30% less sugar variant to its Cadbury Dairy Milk portfolio. MWC has launched a crispy version of its famous Snickers bar – smaller in size and full of puffed rice – it has 60% fewer calories than the standard Snickers chocolate bar, and aims at sugar and calorie conscious consumers.

First sold in our TRDP store estate of 3,000+ independent convenience outlets on 15 August 2019, Snickers Crisp 40g has achieved 37% distribution (29% average weekly distribution) in just 5 weeks and has already outperformed the best-selling of MWC’s new chocolate blocks, the M&M’s Peanut chocolate block, labelled as “the brand’s biggest launch in a decade” (selling in stores since 23 July).

Cadbury Dairy Milk single bar with 30% less sugar 35g was first sold in our store estate a week earlier on 8 August 2019. It has also achieved 40% overall distribution (27% average weekly distribution). But with only half the average weekly rate of sale (3.3 units) compared to the new Snickers bar (7.7 units) Cadbury Dairy Milk with 30% less sugar delivered 55% less volume for Mondelez than Snickers Crispy delivered for MWC so far. It seems that some c-store shoppers are put off by the idea of a “skinny chocolate”.