Novelties & Filled Eggs: Cracking early Easter sales

A delivery driver told a convenience retailer once that he knew Christmas must be coming because he was delivering Creme Eggs into stores. This real-life observation just goes to illustrate the topsy-turvy nature of seasonal confectionery for retailers, when Christmas starts in summer and Easter in December.

Mondelez International always includes the same message in any promotional literature for Easter and that is that Creme Egg is the biggest selling countline between January and Easter. But Vincent Bohannon from Handcross Post Office and Stores in West Sussex reckons Mondelez’s claims about Cadbury Creme Eggs could be an understatement. “For us they are a best-seller between December and Easter. We get them in December and put them out straight away and people start buying them.

“Yes, some people moan about it not being Christmas yet, but they still buy them. I’d say we probably sell a dozen cases before Christmas - it’s absolutely amazing how popular these things are. Personally, I can’t stand them.”

In fact, so popular are Creme Eggs that, according to Nielsen data, they made up 29% of the value of traditional Easter sales in symbols and independents in 2014. In total the brand grew by 20% - across singles and multipacks - taking its value to £50m.

Incredibly, the Local 4 U store in Matlock can beat Vincent’s December sales of Creme Eggs as they have them on sale in November. Wendy Spencer says: “We had the Cadbury rep in here in mid-November and we said we’d take 20 boxes of Creme Eggs - and we put them out as soon as we got them. People will buy them as soon as they spot them because they’ve not seen them since last April. They’re a massive seller.”

Alan Waterson from J Walsh in High Wycombe has a rule that he doesn’t put Creme Eggs out until January, but he may well break that rule for the first time this year.

“It just doesn’t seem right to me to have Creme Eggs out while you’ve still got Christmas products in the shop, but I’m having my arm twisted this year,” he says. “One of my members of staff has been talking to the Cadbury rep and she’s really pushing hard to get them into the shop in December - and if they’ve been delivered we might as well put them out. But, unbelievably, they sell as soon as they’re out on display.”

Interestingly, Alan reckons they’re quite an expensive line to stock. “There’s a lot of competition out there, especially from the pound shops, but I don’t like to go in for the ‘three for £1’ type of deal; I prefer to sell them at a sensible pocket-money price.” Last Easter that was 50p, which was below the rrp, and Alan hopes to repeat that price again, even though the 2015 rrp for them is 58p.

Phil Griffiths, who manages four Spar stores in north Wales, says Blakemore delivers his Creme Eggs between Christmas and New Year and they go out on shelf straight away and start selling. “They’re a great impulse purchase - people see them and buy them, particularly as they are not available all year round.”

But not every retailer has the same story to tell. Sue Mock, who owns Londis Broadhaven in Pembrokeshire, says: “We put the Creme Eggs out as soon as we get them in January. But over the past few years we have noticed that sales are declining year on year so we have cut back our order. They trickle out from a small bin on the counter. They are a pain and it is the packaging that is the worst. They rarely scan properly and if they become even slightly unwrapped in the dump bin then customers won’t buy them.”

But scanning isn’t much of an issue for Vincent, who says: “If they won’t scan we can put them through as sweets, or we can have a bar code cut out at the till for staff to scan.”

And Phil says he and most of his staff actually know the Creme Egg bar code off by heart. “That might sound sad, but it’s true; we sell so many that we all know the bar code.” Wendy knows the bar code off by heart, too, and has it written down for any staff who don’t know it.

Obviously, other filled eggs are available, but it would seem that Mondelez has the market pretty much sewn up with Creme Egg.

Alan says he likes to stick to the Creme Eggs and also the Cadbury Caramel ones, as he’s rather partial to those himself.

Wendy adds: “We do stock other filled eggs when they are on promotion, but they don’t sell as fast as Creme Eggs. We’ll also stock the Malteaster bunnies, but again they don’t sell as well as Creme Eggs. We like to have a bit of everything to give our customers a choice, but most prefer Creme Eggs.”

However, Mars reports constant year-on-year growth for its Malteaster bunnies since the product’s launch seven years ago. The range comprises: the single bunny, rrp 62p; mini bunnies bag, rrp £1.29; five-bar pack multipack, rrp £2.39; and a new gifting pack, rrp £4.99.

The gifting pack has nine Malteaster bunnies in a camper van format, containing two standard size bunnies and seven minis. The product will be back on TV in 2015, via a £1.3m TV spend and a new strapline ‘Catch them while you can!’.

Back in Pembrokeshire, Sue says that because of declining sales she doesn’t bother with any other filled eggs. She’s tried chocolate bunnies, but they’ve not sold well, either.

“It seems to me that customers are becoming savvier about buying chocolate and they know that they get better value for money from a bar of chocolate.”

That said, Sue points out that during the summer months she sells novelties such as chocolate dragons and lambs because of the Welsh connection. “They sell well as gifts, but I think the consumer is bombarded with different chocolate items at Easter as there is too much out there now.”

If he can get them at the right price Alan will stock Lindt bunnies, but he says they are only popular if that all-important price is right. “You can get caught out with the novelties,” he says. “The profit’s always in the last couple you’ve got to sell and if you don’t sell those, you lose out.”

But one product Alan would like to see more of is Cadbury Mini Eggs: “Last Easter we couldn’t get enough of them. If you can get your hands on pricemarked packs, they fly out.”

Mondelez International trade communications manager Susan Nash says that selling seasonal products is a great way to drive excitement in store and generate incremental confectionery sales. “With our Seasons Made Simple initiative, we recommend a tight self-eat range, and retailers can boost this even further with branded POS to highlight key products to customers and make them easy to buy.”

She urges retailers to stock up early with treat products to ensure that they get off to a fast start in 2015’s shorter Easter season when Easter Sunday falls on April 5 compared with 2014’s April 20.