Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without Quality Street. And that’s not the brand’s manufacturer Nestlé saying that; it’s 44% of Brits, in surveys by One Poll, where Quality Street has topped the poll for two years running.
People were asked their top choice of brand that “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without”. Quality Street came top followed by Terry’s Chocolate Orange (37%), Celebrations (33%), Roses (32%) and Ferrero (25%). Also in the Top 10 were Lindt, Pringles, Coca-Cola, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Mr Kipling.
Quality Street has been around for 88 years and despite competition from young pretenders such as Celebrations and Heroes, it keeps its role as part of the UK’s Christmas tradition. It’s obviously changed quite a lot over the years with new centres coming and going, tubs replacing tins and wrappers switching to recyclable paper so they can be recycled with other household waste.
The supermarkets greet their shoppers with tubs of twistwraps piled high and it can be difficult to compete with their discounted prices but this year Quality Street is available in limited-edition tin inspired by the brand’s hometown, Halifax – which may well be worth stocking.
Jemma Handley, senior brand manager for Quality Street, says: “Quality Street has been part of Christmas traditions for 88 years and this year’s beautiful Quality Street tin design really highlights that. It takes inspiration from the brand’s Halifax heritage, where the sweets are still manufactured today.”
In addition to the classic tubs, tins and cartons, Handley says pouches are a great option for sharing. For fondant lovers, there’s the Quality Street Mixed Creme Pouch containing Strawberry Delight and Orange Crème, as well as the Quality Street Golden Selection pouch which contains Caramel Swirl, Toffee Finger and Toffee Penny.
However, according to Nielsen stats, it’s the Celebrations tub that’s the number one gifting SKU in the total UK gifting category and the number one twistwrap brand all year round.
Mars Wrigley says Celebrations has performed well over the last few years, seeing +16% MAT value sales growth and delivering +7.2% value sales between October and December 2023 versus 2022 (Nielsen).
New from Nestlé
Aero has a new Orange Bubbles sharing pouch, featuring an aerated orange flavoured centre with a half milk, half orange flavoured shell. Also new is Smarties Elf Treats giant tube, filled with a mix of red and green Smarties.
For white chocolate enthusiasts, Milkybar Fairy Lights combines Milkybar white chocolate with crispy mini milk chocolate inclusions. Then there’s new Matchmakers Hazelnut, full of crunchy pieces in a blend of milk and dark chocolate that is free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives.
For KitKat lovers there is a new advent calendar full of festive shaped KitKat milk chocolate treats with crispy wafer pieces as well as a new KitKat selection box containing KitKat four-finger bars, KitKat Chunky Peanut Butter, KitKat Chunky, KitKat Chunky White and KitKat Santa.
New from Mondelez
By now, Mondelez says you should have its Cadbury Puds out on display to make the most of impulses sales because Puds is the number one SKU in the self-eat segment (Nielsen stats). This year, the Cadbury Puds range is expanding with the launch of Cadbury Mini Puds in 73g bags.
Also new from Mondelēz is the Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) Creamy Advent Calendar, featuring 24 CDM chocolates with a soft creamy filling.
The confectionery giant says gifting blocks make up 5% of total winter confectionery sales, so are a must-stock for retailers in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day. The Cadbury range includes the classic CDM 360g bar, as well as this year’s 200th anniversary limited-edition tablet. There is also the return of the CDM Winter Mint Crisp 360g block.
Last Christmas Mondelēz brought back CDM Coins, which it says was a huge success – ending the season as the number one NPD across the whole market with over 1.4 million packs sold (Nielsen). Needless to say, they are back again this year.
New from Mars Wrigley
New M&M’S Crispy Milk Chocolate Santa Treat is a milk chocolate Santa shape, filled with creamy vanilla, crispy surprises and M&M’S Minis.
With the self-eat category up 2% year-on-year and 36% of Christmas sales coming from small shapes(Nielsen), Mars Wrigley says the new product will tap into the trend for “small moments of joy”. The launch is being supported by marketing on social media and out-of-home advertising as well as in-store pos media.
Capitalising on the popularity of Twix , which is outperforming the category (Nielsen) there is a new Twix & Friends medium selection box which contains one Twix Milk Chocolate Caramel, one Twix Salted Caramel fun size bar, one Twix White Chocolate fun size bar, one M&M’S Milk Chocolate fun size bag and one Milky Way Magic Stars fun size bag. The launch is supported by an £8m-plus media plan.
Laura O’Neill, Christmas and gifting senior brand manager, says: “Chocolate plays an important role during many key seasonal rituals, from small festive gifts to daily delights and as such, seasonal and gifting is worth £1.8bn of total chocolate value sales (Nielsen).
“Our new launches for Christmas 2024 tap into different shopper needs and will appeal to consumers looking to purchase their favourite brands and products with a seasonal twist.”
New from Hancocks
Bonds of London’s seasonal candy cups were among Hancocks’ best-selling products last year; new for this year is the Snowflakes Candy Cup, filled with raspberry and vanilla flavour sugar-coated snowflake jelly sweets.
The Candy Realms brand has a new Merry Mix Candy Cup filled with Christmas tree mallows, candy stars and green and red sugared candy canes. The brand also has new Christmas lollies. Festive Stackers and Festive Mallow Pops are strawberry flavoured and sugar coated marshmallow lollies, while the Festive Friends Dip n Lick lollipop with dipping sherbet is available in strawberry, apple and blue raspberry flavours.
In the World of Sweets range, there is a new partnership with Elves Behavin’ Badly. The Naughty Elf Mix is a candy cup filled with sugar-coated strawberry-vanilla and apple-vanilla flavour mallows, fruit flavour liquorice and crème candy canes, caramel and vanilla flavour gummy elves and fruit flavour jelly candy canes.
There is also the Giant Gummy Elfie, which is a giant strawberry flavoured gummy in the shape of Elfie, while the new Elfie Tongue Painters bag contains blackberry, raspberry, lemon and orange-flavoured gummies which paint your tongue blue.
Kathryn Hague, head of marketing at Hancocks, says: “With confectionery being one of the highest performing categories during Christmas, it’s important for retailers to stock up on seasonal treats customers can use as stocking fillers, token gifts or share with their family and friends over the holidays.
“Creating eye-catching seasonal displays, stocking up early and offering customers new and exciting Christmas products will help retailers make the most of the busy shopping season.”
New from Rose Marketing UK
The new Harry Potter Stamper with Jellybeans features all the fan-favourite characters. Presented in a branded counter display box of 24, with an rrp of £1.39, the are said to be ideal as stocking fillers or Christmas Eve box treats.
Also new is the Candy Castle Crew’s Christmas range including Fizzy Gingerbread Man, Fizzy Christmas Trees and Fizzy Holly Jolly Mix bags.
Rose Marketing also has a new eye-catching Christmas-specific countertop stand. This free-standing display showcases 54 pocket-money priced sweets, including 20 Christmas Dippers, 12 festive Christmas tree lollipops and 24 Santa liquid pops.
