Expo West 2022: Brands Look to Stand Out in Confectionery Category

Given rising interest in the confectionery category amid large exits from brands like Lily’s and Smart Sweets, it’s perhaps no surprise that several category brands that exhibited at Expo West debuted new form factors and marketing and sales strategies.

While it’s a competitive set, there’s a lot of potential revenue at stake: The National Confectioners Association (NCA) this week announced the results of their 2022 State of Treating, and confectionary brands reported strong growth this year. According to Euromonitor data provided by the NCA, in 2021 chocolate sales accounted for $21.1 billion in sales (+9.2%), non-chocolate confectionery $12.7 billion (+14.5%) and gum & mints $3.1 billion (+3.8%).

Dream Pops Moves Beyond Frozen into Confection, Syrups

Frozen novelty brand Dream Pops is expanding into confection with the launch of its Crunch line of plant-based, chocolate coated candy bites. The shelf-stable bites will allow the brand to once again offer D2C sales to its highly engaged digital audience, a distribution channel it had to shutter after shipping costs provided too arduous for its frozen items.

While low-sugar has found traction within the broader candy space, the approach to achieving this varies. To stand out from other competitors, Dream Pops is emphasizing that its lower calorie counts and sugar levels come from its use of coconut sugar rather than alternative sweeteners or sugar alcohols. The Crunch items are similar in texture, flavor and use case to its frozen line of bites, CEO and founder David Grenfeld said, making it an easy concept for its existing consumer base to understand.

“We’ve always seen ourselves as a confectionery brand, whose products would eventually extend beyond the freezer,” Greenfeld said. “With Dream Pops Crunch we are looking at classic legacy candies like Butterfinger and Whoppers, and trying to create a better for you replacement (made with dehydrated coconut milk). There are plenty of peanut butter cups and bark thins, but far fewer snackable candy crunch bites in this category.”

Available in Vanilla Sky, Birthday Cake, Cookie Dough, Banana Cream, Berry Dream and Mint Chip, each 3.5 oz bag retails for $5.99. Though the line will first debut online, Greenfeld said he hopes to bring the bites to brick and mortar retailers in the second half of this year.

The company also debuted Dream Pops Drip at Expo West, positioned as an alternative to Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup. The product uses a base of coconut nectar and is available in Chocolate Syrup, Caramel Syrup and Strawberry Syrup for $12.99 per 12 oz. bottle.

Though syrups typically generate slower turns than candy or chocolate, Greenfeld said he sees the line as a “bridge between confection and frozen desserts,” as well as an opportunity to stand out in a category largely dominated by one major player.

“Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup has become a staple in most American households,” he noted. “The household penetration [of] chocolate syrup is quite high, and we believed that we could create a design driven product, that parents could proudly give their kids, without the guilt of the ingredients.”

Skinny Dipped Goes Deeper on its ‘Core’ Offerings

Candy brand SkinnyDipped last year moved beyond its flagship line of candy and chocolate coated nuts, launching lower sugar chocolate bits, nut butter cups and chocolate bars.

Though the three offerings have been picked up by retailers and performed admirably online, a sales representative told NOSH at Expo West that, among the new launches, nut butter cups have emerged as the biggest success. The brand has no plans to discontinue its other offerings, and will continue to support them via marketing efforts, but in the near term will prioritize its cups and nuts offerings.

“The growth in our nuts business and the quicker-than-expected adoption of cups has definitely underscored our strength in healthy snacking and pointed to ways we can continue to bring brand-right, differentiated offerings to market,” VP of marketing Lindsay Mecca told NOSH. “As we prioritize sell-in, if we have to pick only one of our new items, we’re going to choose Cups because it’s a more proven bet for us.”

The brand’s nuts are sold in 21,000 doors (up from 12,000 in 2020). SkinnyDipped declined to provide store counts for its newest items, aside from noting its bits are primarily sold in 2,000 Walmart locations.

The cups also allow the brand to maintain a more consistent marketing message emphasizing the products’ “core” — be it nuts or nut butter. This terminology has proven flexible, carrying over to the heart of SkinnyDipped’s mission, offering healthy snacks and giving back to “cacao-based communities.”

“Our core has always been what’s differentiated us. When we launched SkinnyDipped Almonds, it was our prioritization of the nut center itself that allowed us to redefine a traditional category and make it healthier and more snackable,” co-founder and CEO Breezy Breezy Griffith told NOSH. “We keep this “core-centric” mindset alive in all of our products; for example, our Peanut Butter Cups have more peanut butter and a thinner chocolate shell.”

Nick’s Adds New Confection, Snacking Options

Global sweets brand Nick’s announced a slate of new products at Expo West including nut-based snack bars, chocolate and almond bark, and refrigerated bars.

Though Nick’s originally began in Sweden, with candy items already overseas, each of the new items has been adjusted to the American palate, the company said. Unlike low-sugar items from SkinnyDipped and Dream Pops, which avoid the use of sugar alcohols, Nick’s uses a blend of erythritol, sweet fibers and stevia along with allulose, sorbitol and xylitol, depending on the line.

Although the company debuted a wide range of new items, U.S. CEO Carlos Altschul said R&D costs were minimized by developing products that could be used across the portfolio. For example, the brand’s snack bar chocolate coating also led to the development of its chocolate bark.

The new product launches are aimed to help solidify the brand’s place in consumers’ baskets as an indulgent but better-for-you brand.

“We realize[d] both consumers and retailers are looking for Nick’s differentiation across other categories,” U.S. CEO Carlos Altschul said of the launches. “The new categories we’re entering give consumers access to great tasting products in other formats that have great nutritionals, and deliver on what they want across dayparts.