PRESS RELEASE: Convenience retailers see Easter sales growth driven by inflation

DATE: 24 April, 2025 // BACK TO ARCHIVE »

In figures released today by Talysis, the UK’s specialist convenience insight agency, sales of Easter confectionery are up 4.2% year on year vs 2024, despite unit sales seeing a decline of 9.2%.

The new figures reveal that inflation continues to prop up a declining Easter trade for the convenience sector. Easter 2025 has delivered a noteworthy increase in value sales for the UK convenience channel, with Easter confectionery sales rising by 4.2% year-on-year, despite a decline in unit sales of over 9%.

With a seasonal confectionery range in excess of 300 products available in convenience stores across the UK this year, innovation continued to play an important role and contributed to the seasonal excitement, but despite the introduction of 86 new products (NPD) for Easter 2025, the best sellers remain predominantly driven by established brands & SKUs.

Despite this breadth of range, 75% of all Easter confectionery sales come from the top 20 lines, with 63.5% of sales from just the top 10 products. This year, only one new product (Reeses Big Cup with Easter Sprinkles 73g) made it into the top 30 (at No 30), albeit there were ten NPDs in the Top 50 easter lines.

Significant price inflation was prevalent across all of the Top 10 Easter products, with average selling prices in Convenience up, across the board, between 18.6% and 23.8%.

Love was in the air…
Looking at the full selling season, Cadbury Creme Eggs and Mini Eggs emerged as the standout seasonal favourites of 2025, collectively contributing 63% of total Easter confectionery sales in the convenience channel. Unsurprisingly, their highest sales came last week (w/e 20th April), with 14.4% of all Easter sales taking place in that week. However, both brands also saw strong sales ahead of Easter, with Valentine’s week (w/e 16th February) delivering the biggest value sales for both skus outside of Easter. In fact, 50% of ‘Easter’ sales happen before the start of March.

PMPs at Easter
Ed Roberts, MD of Talysis Ltd, reveals: “While 32% of total confectionery sales in the convenience channel come from Price-Marked Packs (PMPs), the Easter range presents a different picture, with only 2% of Easter confectionery sales coming from PMP lines. With the top 10 Easter products comprising mainly single impulse and hanging bag type products, rather than traditional Easter gifting lines, you have to question whether the channel missed a trick to really capitalise on Easter impulse through the lack of seasonal PMP lines and if there is an opportunity for PMPs to play a larger role in the seasonal market.”

In Summary
Ed concludes: “This year, the convenience channel differentiated itself from the supermarkets and discounters. It did not compete on traditional eggs and gifting lines and is now not left with residual stock and clearance issues, which have been seen across the supermarkets this week. Even so, their ability to capitalise on Price-Marked Packs is a huge opportunity to consider for next year. Focusing on what the channel does best should ensure that they’re rewarded by shoppers in the long-term, rather than relying on the short-term impact of inflation to increase sales values.”