Talking Retail Grocery and product news for independent retailers
As a result, the Halloween period contributed a whopping £488m for retailers in 2022, resulting in a fifth consecutive year of value sales growth for one of the most important retail events in the UK.
Shopper attention
This year is set to be even bigger as consumer confidence grows and creating themed displays and in-store theatre help to drive additional footfall to confectionery areas.
Halloween is the UK’s third biggest retail event in the confectionery calendar and retailers can maximise sales by making the occasion a focus in the aisles, decorating them to draw shopper attention, and they can make sure customers know where they can buy their Halloween treats.
Phil Hulme, commercial director at Kervan Gida UK, says: “Confectionery is one of the key categories when it comes to planning for Halloween. It’s important that retailers make the most of the occasion by ensuring consumers can easily identify the Halloween aisle, as it is a destination for many.”
Bigger impact
Perfetti Van Melle is also encouraging strong visibility, as Halloween is one of its biggest seasonal opportunities. Mark Roberts, marketing director at Perfetti Van Melle, highlights the fact that HFSS has introduced limitations on where and how confectionery can be sold, making visibility even more important this year.
He says: “We have found free-standing POS displays help retailers sell product. But overall, the retailers that put the most into the season have the biggest impact at that time of year.
The retailers that do it best are those who make the event their key focus, cultivate in-store theatre and earmark key space as a ‘one stop shop’ for everything the customer might need, including decorations and other cross-merchandised goods.”
Seasonal editions
Limited editions always create a stir and this Halloween Mars Wrigley is bringing back a Halloween classic: Skittles Darkside. The limited edition treats come in an indigo bag and contain dark-coloured sweets in Dark Berry, Midnight Lime, Blood Orange, Wicked Pomegranate and Sweet Strawberry flavours.
Florence Kayll, senior brand manager for Easter and Halloween at Mars Wrigley, urges retailers: “Introduce seasonal and themed limited edition items in the aisle, such as Skittles Darkside, to generate excitement and drive impulse purchases within the aisle, given HFSS restrictions. By innovating product offerings, manufacturers can work with retailers to help tap into consumers’ desire for affordable indulgence this Halloween.”
Sharing occasions
Soft drinks are another big category at this time of year, growing in value by £70m year on year during Halloween 2022. In fact, soft drinks spend grew faster than three of the four traditional Halloween categories – sugar confectionery, pumpkins and chocolate.
As it is such a big sharing occasion, Amy Burgess, senior trade communications manager at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), advises retailers to stock a wide range of sharing packs across leading brands at the heart of their Halloween ranges, such as large PET bottles of Coca-Cola, Fanta and Schweppes.
Martin Attock, vice president of commercial development at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners GB, says: “Fanta is the number one flavoured carbonates brand in Great Britain and contributed nearly a third (32%) of total flavoured carbonates growth during Halloween 2022, with one in four flavoured carbonates sold a Fanta product. It’s always been a popular choice, thanks to its long-standing association with Halloween, driven by engaging campaigns and on-pack activity.”
Home baking
Cookies and cakes are also a key part of Halloween and baking at home can be a fun activity for parents and children. Dr Oetker has expanded its product portfolio with its all-new Halloween range for October 2023.
The range contains numerous new launches, including The Spooks of Halloween Baking Cases, The Spooks of Halloween Decorating Icing, The Spooks of Halloween Sprinkles and the Spooktacular Science Bake & Learn Glow in the Dark Icing Cupcake Mix.
Jen Johnson, head of marketing, cake and desserts at Dr Oetker UK, says: “Halloween is a key calendar date for us, as aside from Christmas it’s the biggest over-indexing week in the home baking calendar, with sales 60% higher than an average non-event week.
The occasion itself is worth an incremental £4.3m. A lot of this is driven by seasonal ranges, which are critical routes to success around key calendar dates. We can’t wait for these to hit the shelves and see how our customers use them to elevate their Halloween bakes to be even bigger and better than ever.”
Dietary requirements
With children around, it is important to keep in mind allergies and dietary requirements. Big brands these days have it covered with a plethora of offerings to accommodate vegans, no-sugar, no-dairy and portion control.
Many brands also have sustainability in mind. Hulme at Kervan Gida UK says: “Health and sustainability continue to be of concern to consumers year-round. Bebeto offers a range of small bags for trick-or-treating and larger 150g bags that are perfect for parties. Bebeto’s range is packed in 150g non-plastic bags that are designed for sharing – each portion is 20g.
We have our popular 150g Halloween-themed vegan sharing bags; they are all free from artificial colours and flavours, are vegan-approved by the vegetarian society, and are halal-certified.”
Kervan Gida has even created gravity-fed, full-colour shelf-ready packaging, which Hulme says is “perfect for consumers who want to have a hygiene-friendly option to hand out to trick-or-treaters who come knocking at their doors”.
Wrapped sweets
Research has found 67% of shoppers are concerned about cleanliness and hygiene and 58% want to see a wider range of wrapped sweets available. Claire James, trade marketing manager at Haribo, agrees: “Individually wrapped products provide protection and appeal to shoppers sticking to strict hygiene measures, while also supporting portion control.”
The Halloween opportunity gets bigger and bigger each year and Brits are ever keener to celebrate this seasonal favourite and, for many adults and children, the end of October marks one of the highlights of the calendar.
With independents being the go-to outlets for all the last-minute items to make Halloween a success, retailers can benefit by being well prepared for this annual sales uplift.
Top Tips
❚ Tap into one of three key shopper missions: refreshment, indulgence (such as fruit flavours), and on-the-go consumption.
❚ Include sugar-free products in your offering: mints and gum are not exempt from either the rise of the health-conscious consumer or HFSS regulations.
❚ Stock a variety of flavours, textures, and formats to offer choice among the leading brands – they provide peace of mind and always sell first.
❚ Add signage and POS for a standout fixture that builds visibility. Talk to your rep about compelling till-point deals.Not just for kids
Nicola Randall, head of marketing, Brothers Drinks Company
“For adults looking to enjoy their fair share of the Halloween fun, Brothers Toffee Apple Cider offers a great-tasting seasonally relevant flavour,” says Brothers head of marketing Nicola Randall.
“Brothers Cider had an extremely successful Halloween last time around and the brand sold 58% more volume in the month of October than in September.
Not only did we perform particularly well over Halloween in terms of our own relative monthly sales, but the month of October 2022 was over 80% more important to Brothers Cider volume sales than it was to suppliers of all other fruit-flavoured ciders.
Brothers achieved significantly above average monthly volumes in October, whereas all other fruit ciders achieved significantly below average volumes.
For switched-on retailers, stocking Brothers Toffee Apple cider is a great way to generate incremental Halloween sales to adults.”
