Hard candy

Philip Courtenay-Luck, managing director of Bonds Confectionery, takes a look at the market for hard candy.

A recent survey of 2,000 UK consumers commissioned by Bonds Confectionery revealed that more than one-third have a sweet tooth and buy sweets every day, with retro sweets scoring highly on the list of favourites.

The great British public has had a love affair with confectionery for decades and although trends change, certain classic lines seem to remain firmly at the forefront of most confectionery ranges. These include sherbet lemons, cough candy, rhubarb and custard, and blackcurrant and liquorice, which seem to retain their popularity with sweet lovers even as other ‘trendier’ ranges are introduced and subsequently withdrawn from sale. There is a vast assortment of retro products currently available, from boiled sweets, such as those mentioned above to 70s style products such as sherbet fountains, drum stick lollies and the ever popular pick ‘n’ mix.

Bonds Confectionery’s best-selling product in 2012 was its Retro Classics bag, an assortment of classic products including Parma Violets, Love Hearts and Drumsticks that are just as popular with children as with adult sweet buyers who associate them with memories from their childhoods. There has also been a significant increase in demand for the relaunched Sweet Shop traditional bagged range, which has seen a sales growth of 23 per cent year on year and includes hard confectionery such as pear drops and barley sugar.

Merchandising

An article published in Scottish Grocer and Convenience Retailer in March 2013 reported that sugar confectionery bagged lines are now worth £531m (€622m), an increase of five per cent per year. This growth has been reflected in the increase in display space that supermarkets have allowed for these products over the past 10 years.

As well as sharing bags, retailers are turning to price marked packs to avoid confusing price points and temporary deals giving customers the variety they like with clear brand management to offer easy navigation. This style of merchandising is increasingly being adopted by independent stores as well as by larger chains.

Shifting tastes

In spite of plenty of evidence that boiled sweets remain extremely popular with consumers, a 2012 Mintel report revealed that consumer tastes are shifting and hard sweets are losing some of their market share despite an increase in new product development in the area. It states that soft confectionery is beginning to regain its position, having grown since 2009 to represent 36 per cent of the overall market. This includes products such as gums, jellies and pastilles.

The report also stated that 61 per cent of sweet eaters believe that there are not enough healthy sweets available. This rises to 64 per cent of under-35s. Confectioners have responded by developing sweets that can, for example, cater for dietary requirements or boast health benefits such as gluten free and vitamin enriched hard confectionery, which may go some way to increase the popularity of this type of sweet over soft confectionery.

Going natural

Natural flavourings and colours are becoming increasingly popular and confectioners are continuing to develop products in this market, especially since the 2007 study by the University of Southampton that linked six artificial colours to hyperactivity in children was made public. Since then confectioners have continued to create recipes that provide the taste and appearance that artificial colours and flavourings offer by using more natural ingredients.

Product development

Natural colours and flavours are also important in the development of hard candy. As with any change in ingredients, it is important to consider the different elements of the product and how they will work together.

When using more natural flavours, such as strawberry (the most popular flavouring in confectionery), the natural product contains a lot of water and it therefore takes a considerable quantity to create a satisfactory flavour.

Moisture has an important role in the shelf life of a product, and the texture of confectionery can be altered if this content is not controlled or the boiling temperature is inconsistent. If the manufacturer tries to keep costs down and profits up while using natural flavourings and colours, the resulting product may look less vibrant and may not have as much flavour as one using a more concentrated natural product.

There have been an increasing number of developments in natural flavourings and colour as demand for the product increases. As more manufacturers have embraced natural flavourings, the cost has reduced substantially over the past few years.

Mouthfeel and texture are extremely important in hard confectionery. If a product is designed to bite rather than suck, it is important for the recipe to contain more sugar than glucose. Sugar produces a glass-like texture and while glucose is a cheaper product, it gives it a more flexible consistency. Knowing the characteristics of sugar is also a factor that should be taken into account when considering the mouthfeel and texture of confectionery. When developing a hard confectionery product, a 60/40 split often achieves the desired texture because too much glucose can make the product difficult to bite due to its plasticity.

The future

A recent trend is for confectioners to produce sweets with extreme flavours, such as wasabi, that are targeted at adults rather than children. In the UK we have started to see adult orientated flavours such as chilli and chocolate and sour flavourings for sugar confectionery. While sour was traditionally associated with gummy sweets and bubble gum, it is now a flavour that is making its way into hard confectionery.

Although making up less than one per cent of the hard candy market, sweets with liquid centres have increased in popularity over the recent years. Ensuring that the product retains its shape and the liquid centre does not leak into the hard candy shell can be a challenge for manufacturers.

Manufacturers are also looking to introduce products that give an ‘experience’ rather than just a pleasant taste. One such product is Skittles Confused, a twist on an established favourite, where the flavoured fillings have no correlation with the coloured outer shells. Rowntree’s Randoms Rip’ems are another good example of this trend where consumers are encouraged to create various shapes and flavour combinations themselves from the eight peelable strips in apple, blackcurrant, orange and pineapple flavour. It is likely that this will also become a trend in hard confectionery in the future.

Conclusion

Change in the area of hard confectionery is slow. However, the children’s confectionery market is often the sector where new trends emerge first. Children are attracted by different flavours. As a result, sugar confectionery products aimed primarily at children remain at the heart of the industry, and innovation in this area is relentless. ¨