Easter will have Harry Potter, Tortuguita and Barbie – 02/23/2023 – Market

Characters, gifts, price diversity and more attention to chocolate bars are some of the food industry’s bets for this year’s Easter. In retail, supermarkets have already started to assemble their egg vines, but the campaign for the date only starts now, after Carnival.

The consumer is expected to find more expensive eggs this year, compared to 2022. Manufacturers do not open how much more they needed to charge retail, but confirm that higher production costs forced the transfer of these increases.

The strategy, then, is to provide consumers with options in all price ranges and more attention to chocolate bars and bonbons, and gifts, a model already consolidated among Easter products.

According to Abicab (Brazilian Association of the Chocolate, Peanut and Candy Industry), the extra production at the factories to meet Easter generated 7,900 temporary job openings, between direct and indirect jobs.

“Changes in the way Brazilians consume chocolate have shaped the industry over the years. Whether creating products or adapting existing ones, the sector is always attentive and ready to meet market demand in the best possible way”, says the president of the association, Ubiracy Fonsêca, in a note.

Cacau Show projects a 40% growth in sales. Production was increased by about 30% to account for 13,500 tons of chocolate. In eggs alone, there will be 23 million units.

To fulfill the expressive increase, the brand is betting on two releases, an egg filled with pistachio cream, from the La Nut line, and products licensed in partnership with companies such as Warner Bros and HBO.

“In licensed ones, we talk a lot with the children. We have eggs with key chains of characters and teams”, says Túlio Freitas, commercial director of Cacau Show. In the category eggs with gifts, there are plushies from the Care Bears, Harry Potter and Sylvester and Tom and Jerry slippers.

Freitas says that price increases, compared to last year’s Easter, were inevitable to cushion the increase in production costs. “But we will still have products in all price ranges”, he says.

Cacau Show has already started to include products from the Easter campaign in stores, which only officially starts in retail now, after Carnival. Part of the company’s communication with the consumer is buying as a gift, a trend that, according to Freitas, gained traction after the pandemic.

While ecommerce does not exceed 3% of sales in the period, Cacau Show sees growth in direct sales by resellers, in a model in which the product is taken to the customer’s home. These negotiations already account for almost 10% of the company’s results.

At Lacta, Barbie eggs will have, for the first time, three models, with mermaids of different hair and skin colors.

The bet of Álvaro Garcia, vice-president of marketing at Mondelez, owner of Lacta, is that the heroes of Easter will not be the eggs, but the recently launched sticks of Sonho de Valsa and Ouro Branco, two of the most popular chocolates of brand. Traditionally sold as single candies, sticks are slightly smaller than a bar and more like small tubes.

Lacta found, says Garcia, that the Easter consumption profile has been changing, reaching the entire chocolate category. An internal data used by the company points out that a third of consumers do not present eggs on the date, but buy chocolates.

The brand’s other novelty for the date is a box of Oreo varieties, with different presentations of the stuffed biscuit. Disassembled, the box becomes a game board.

For this year, Lacta launched a channel to handle corporate purchases, those made by companies to give gifts to their employees. Orders will be placed online.

According to Garcia, the channel for companies was created to meet a demand perceived last year, through customers. “He has the convenience of finding the volume he needs and knowing when he will receive it”, he says.

Internet sales have a small share of the total, but Lacta expects it to grow this year. The general expectation is to sell up to 15% more than in 2022, in all channels. Lacta does not reveal numbers about the total produced.

At Arcor, Tortuguita is the ambassador of the Easter campaign. Of the five launches by the brand for the date, two feature the character, such as the Tortuguita 7Belo egg, uniting the popular candy with chocolate in the shape of a turtle.

This year’s result should be, according to the company’s projections, 10% higher than last year.

According to Anderson Freire, director of marketing, research and development at Arcor do Brasil, there will also be eggs with headphones and headsets (headphones that are attached to the head).

“These are quality gifts with high added value, following the trend of positioning the character closer to the young audience”, he says. “In total synergy with the gamer world and also with the home-office.”

Nestlé does not disclose projections for sales results on the date, but says that the expectation is positive. The volume of Nestlé and Garoto brand eggs produced this year is almost 10% greater than that manufactured in 2022. In all, 12 million eggs are ready.

For Easter 2023, the brand will bring six innovations to the market. The Opereta chocolate egg was produced again; Baton eggs, Kitkat Dark, Alpino extra creamy, Crunch and the box of stuffed Alpino are also included in the news.

Empório Nestlé, the site that concentrates the factory’s e-commerce operation, has been, according to the company, an important ally in bringing forward purchases to the date. In 2023, Nestlé expects to increase trades through this channel by 20% compared to 2022.