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Sweet Profits:
Spread holiday cheer with quality confections
By Karen L. Wagner

It may still be that time of the year when chocolate melts in your hand, in addition to your mouth, but soon the air will turn cooler, leaves will begin changing colors and yet another holiday season will be here.

The holidays are a time when retailers often make a big chunk of their annual revenues. According to the National Retail Federation, the holiday season accounts for about 23 percent of annual retail sales. That’s because shoppers at this time of the year are in the mood to spend more—on holiday gifts, on bringing a little something for that holiday get-together, or simply on a little self-indulgence.

Of course, selling more means having more to sell, so retailers should be preparing now to stack their shelves and counters with all kinds of holiday goodies that their customers will be unable to pass up. Chocolate is popular throughout the year, but there’s just something about the holidays and this sweet and satisfying confection that seem to go hand in hand. Add a cup of strong coffee, and for many consumers, it’s a match made in heaven.

These days candy manufacturers and suppliers are setting up these matches with all kinds of rich and gooey delights—everything from chocolate-covered espresso beans to flavorful truffles and favorite holiday novelties like foil-wrapped chocolate Santas. And, because it is a special occasion, these sweets are dressed in their holiday finest of traditional red and greens, plus new fashionable colors, like shiny golds and platinums.
It’s an easy way to ring in a little more holiday cheer all around.

This just in
The holidays are a good time to introduce consumers to new products because they’re buying more and willing to experiment. Affordable luxuries such as upscale chocolates are a good way to nab some of those extra dollars.

Chocolate Fantasies, Inc., Oak Brook, Ill., recently came out with an espresso-filled chocolate that should be able to hit store shelves in time for the busy shopping season, says company sales director Tony Vacek.
Called Espresso Secrets, the candy is made of a dark chocolate shell filled with a liquid espresso. “It seemed like a good marriage,” says Vacek, noting the current popularity of chocolate and coffee in general. “What we wanted to achieve was a two-taste sensation.”

The idea for the new chocolate came from Chocolate Fantasies founder Leonard DeFranco, Vacek explains, who discovered an espresso-filled chocolate during one of his frequent trips to Europe. DeFranco wanted to sell the candy here, but manufacturers in Europe were not interested in exporting the chocolate because of the issues involved in packaging and shipping the delicate, liquid-filled candy. So, about two years ago, DeFranco began the process of inventing his own version of the chocolate. After a few variations were produced, the first production run of the final product took place in April.

Introduced at the National Confectioner’s Association’s candy expo in Chicago this past June, the candy has sparked varied interest, from coffeehouse and bookstore retailers to gift basket makers, and even a hotelier who, Vacek said, thought the candy would be appropriate to put on pillows at bedtime turndown.
“Everyone that looked at it has multiple applications,” he says.

The candy is packaged three ways—individually wrapped in bulk for use in gift baskets, for example, three-piece boxes for individual consumption, and a 5.5-ounce coffee bag that contains individually wrapped pieces for sharing.

While some manufacturers use artificial flavorings, Vacek says the candy is made with real coffee. A three-piece serving contains about the same amount of caffeine as about a cup of espresso, he adds. While liquid-filled chocolates are not as popular here, Vacek says the hope is that the appeal of chocolate and coffee will attract U.S. tastes to their new product. “It’s basically one of a kind,” he says.

Cooler weather, warming comfort
While certain products are popular at certain times of the year, during the holiday season all of his company’s products are popular, says Brad van Dam, president of Marich Confectionery Company, Hollister, Calif.
“Around fall and holiday time is when every product we make is selling,” van Dam says. “Even the product that really doesn’t sell well for the rest of the year, it sells at holiday time.”

Chocolate-covered cherries are the confectioner’s most popular product, van Dam says. Also in the top five are chocolate-covered blueberries, chocolate-covered espresso beans and Holland mints, he says. Some of the candy is part of the manufacturer’s Café Complements line, which is designed for the coffeehouse market.
While all candy, and especially chocolates, experiences a surge in popularity as the weather cools, van Dam says he is noticing a trend in particular flavors.

“Right now, the flavors that we’re seeing as being popular, especially going into the fall, are what we call warm, home and hearth—buttery, creamy, just really warm, comforting flavors,” he says.

What’s especially popular, he continues, are caramels and triple chocolate toffee. Caramel, he says, is a very approachable flavor that everyone knows. Meanwhile, the toffee squares, covered in either milk, dark chocolate, or white and dark chocolate that has a marble look to it, are also familiar favorites. “It’s sugar, butter, almonds, salt and chocolate,” he says.

Another trend that customers have initiated is products that have a different finish to them, rather than just plain old chocolatey brown, van Dam continues. “Our customers have been telling us ‘Brown, brown, brown.’ They want something that looks different,” he says.

For example, Marich has a white peppermint bark shortbread topped with red candy sprinkles and a lemon shortbread, which van Dam describes as a light, lemon yellow color. Both, he says, are nice, but the white candy with the red sprinkles is more popular because it shows better. The same with the triple chocolate toffee, he says, which has the colors of the different chocolates, and is very popular not only because it tastes good, but because it looks different, too—something that consumers are wanting more and more these days.

“There’s been a heavy push toward offering things that have a little bit of a different look. And that’s basically just to send a signal to the customer that this is something different to catch their eye, to make them want to pick it up and go, ‘What is this?’” van Dam explains. “People buy food with their eyes. They just do.”

While the trend can be found among consumers in general, van Dam points out that different finishes and decorations are particularly appealing to coffeehouse customers, who tend to have more discriminating tastes and are more adventurous in trying something different.

“That market is particularly keen to differences. And, again, it’s an experimental customer who’s willing to step out of their comfort zone and spend a little more, but they do expect to be wowed.”

Dressed and ready to go
Appearance counts, not only on the inside, but the outside, as well. In other words, packaging should be almost as scrumptious as the goodies found inside.

“Absolutely,” says Rich Shaffer, sales and marketing director for Torn Ranch, Novato, Calif. “Of course, (customers) want to know the content. But what catches their eye, first of all, is the packaging.”

For the holidays, Torn Ranch has come out with new packaging for its line of truffles, which come in espresso, java and espresso caramel flavors. The truffles are packaged in a platinum-colored box wrapped with a gold satin bow and imprinted with a matching gold-colored logo. Shaffer says the colors seem to be part of the new trend found in various media, especially advertising.

“So, we thought we’d go from our chocolate brown box ... to try the platinum look,” he says.
Torn Ranch also carries chocolate-covered espresso beans and more traditional confections like foiled chocolates, red, white and green malt balls, and various nuts, such as dark chocolate covered pistachios, cashews and pecans. An increasingly popular item, particularly among coffeehouses, Shaffer says, is the confectioner’s tea-infused chocolates, which are milk chocolate discs that contain real tea. The popularity of the tea chocolates is indicative of the growing popularity of tea in general, he notes.

Torn Ranch also recently acquired the trademark for MochaDots, wafers of premium milk chocolate that come in French vanilla, hazelnut, raspberry, chocolate, truffle, Irish cream and amaretto flavors. The wafers are meant to be stirred into a cup of coffee and impart a rich, creamy flavor. The candy was scheduled to be available from Torn Ranch in August.

Along with packaging, displays of confections are also a key component of driving sales. Here is where the marketing savvy of retailers really comes into play. After all, retailers do not make nor package the candy, but they have complete control over where it goes in the coffeehouse—and that can be the difference between whether a particular product sells well or not at all.

“Our products in (a coffeehouse) are more of an impulse thing,” says Shaffer. “So, of course, you want (them) in the traffic aisle, at the register.”

Brad van Dam from Marich says candy should be in high-traffic areas. Echoing Shaffer’s comments, he says candy is never on anyone’s shopping list, but everyone buys it, so it’s definitely bought on impulse. And, he adds, even the different finishes and colors of the candy can be used to create a display to attract the busy customer.

“That is what’s gonna drive sales,” he explains. “If (the product’s) off in a corner or in a place that just happens to be inconvenient, it should be no surprise that the sales are lackluster. But if you put it front and center, (I) guarantee it will work.”

Van Dam adds that candy has to be accessible, so keeping it in front of the counter rather than behind it is a more effective strategy. Customers, he says, need to be able to easily access the product or they won’t buy it.
“It’s a pure emotional connection with candy,” he adds. “It just is.”

And that, of course, makes candy a perfect tie-in to the spirit of the season.

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