Retail foresees selling 40% more on Easter
DCI
This year, Easter, main time of sales for the retail specialized in sweets and chocolates, considered a second Christmas for the supermarket sector, promises to be one of the best seasons in recent times. In the forecast of sweet and chocolate stores, the expressive numbers of the sales in the retail in December may be repeated on Easter. For that reason, chains like Cacau Show, Ofner, Kopenhagen and Brasil Cacau - both belonging to the CRM group already estimate a 40% increase in the sale of seasonal items on the date.
According to Stefenson Soalheiro, Marketing manager of Cacau Show, a chain with 850 franchise stores in all States of the country - in 2009, the chain had 653 franchises -, the opening of new units and the launching of new products will bring an increase of 42% in the sales of the company during the Easter season this year. For Soalheiro, the expectation for the date is always very good, because, between the months of March and April there is the sale of 38% of the annual production of the factory.
For CRM, the expectation is to sell 480 tons of Kopenhagem branded chocolates this Easter. Only from the Kopenhagem line (non seasonal), it is estimated the sale of 240 tons of products plus a strengthening of 240 tons of the "seasonal products", such as Easter chocolate eggs, rabbits and carrots. At other times of the year normally 120 tons of line products are sold per month. According to Renata Vichi, the president of the group, the date represents 30% of the annual earnings, considering all the brands of the company. According to Renata, the growth this year should happen, mainly because of new units of the Kopenhagen chocolate store, a brand in the market for over 80 years and that opened 25 stores since Easter last year.
For one year in the market, Brasil Cacau, brand of the CRM group on the market for one year this month, shall have a 15% increase in the sales in its second Easter and it will have 100 tons of products in the stores - 50 tons of seasonal items and 60 line products - in the months of March and April, when sales of items for the date take place.
Another company that is already making moves for the Easter sales is Ofner, whose products will get to the shelves between the first and the second week of March. For Laury Roman, commercial officer of the traditional confectionery of São Paulo, the sales this year will be heated because of the improvement in the economy and of the success in the Christmas sales. "They will have a growth of 10% - over the same period of 2009 - because the sales at the end of the year were excellent and work as a thermometer for us, even because of the proximity between dates".
In the supermarkets the expectation is that the sales of seasonal items for Easter heat up. In the stores of the Pão de Açúcar Group (GPA), the estimate of growth is above 15% of the volume of sales of those products in relation to the same period of last year, when the chain sold 1.8 million kilograms of chocolate, according to Diogo Paiva, responsible for the department of seasonal items of the Group. The Carrefour and Walmart Brasil chains were sought by the DCI team, but they have informed they have not closed their numbers on the period for disclosure yet.