Cristian Stancu, marketing manager of Supreme Chocolat believes that a focus on modern retail and the launch of new products in summer will help curb sales fluctuations generated by the hot weather, considering consumers usually swap chocolate for other products during the summer months.
Supreme Chocolat, the producer of the Primola chocolate posted an approximately 5% sales increase in the first six months of the year compared with the same time in 2006 - about half the growth of the entire chocolate tablet market.
Sales of chocolate tablets on the domestic market witnessed an 8.2% increase in volume and an 11.4% increase in value between December 2006 and May 2007, compared with the same time in 2006, according to the AC Nielsen market research company. The manager of Supreme Chocolat, however, anticipates a weaker performance from the market during the summer months.
"No matter what sales and communication efforts companies might make on the market - chocolate consumption is affected by hot weather in summer. The chocolate market has a strong seasonal nature," Cristian Stancu explains.
Sales of chocolate on the market decrease during periods of hot weather, as consumers prefer to buy soft drinks and ice creams rather than sweets.
To reduce the sales fluctuations in the summer season, producers often release new chocolate products tailored especially for the summer season. This often involves companies dropping cocoa-based products for white chocolate or lemon cream.
"We launched three summer products at the end of May, two of which were the same as last year and also a new product, with ice tea cream filling," Stancu adds. In addition, the summer season brings changes in terms of chocolate-based product distribution, also because of the hot weather.
"The hot weather does not only affect consumption, but also the distributi
