Hershey’s Chocolate, Reese’s and Kisses all posted dollar sales growth. Hershey led the category, accounting for 39% of overall sales. (99g) were up 1.6% in value and 0.3% in unit sales during the period.
Mars M&M's tops sales in larger size chocolate candy in the US with a 13.5% share, beating its nearest competitor brand Hershey Chocolate (7.4% dollar share). ©iStock/lovleahĭollar sales for chocolate weighing more than 3.5 oz. The Italian owned confectioner has been touted as another possible acquisition target for Mondelēz. The company’s dollar sales fell 4.5% in the category and none of its brands made the top 20.įerrero USA also had no brands in the top 20, but raised its total dollar sales 7.8% in smaller chocolate formats.
Lindt – which outperformed the chocolate industry globally last year – saw declines in smaller formats in US chocolate over the period. Mondelēz said last week that it continues to explore acquisition targets after recently dropping its interest in Hershey. Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Bank Vontobel, recently suggested Nestlé consider offloading its US confectionery operations, particularly as its global bestseller KitKat is licensed to Hershey in the US. It was the number three player in the smaller size category, but Butterfinger was its only product to feature in the top 20, and sales from the brand were down 18.17%. Nestlé USA’s value sales dropped 14.1% in small size chocolate during the period.