Cadbury has announced the launch of a Creme Egg competition in the run-up to Easter 2025, asking retailers across the country ‘How Do You Display Yours?’
The competition invites retailers to dip into their imaginations and share their most innovative and eye-catching Cadbury Creme Egg displays. Any retailer who shares an idea via a specially-created form on SnackDisplay.co.uk – Mondelēz International’s trade-focused advice and information site – will be entered into a competition to win £1,000 worth of vouchers for first place, with four runner-up prizes ranging from £250 to £500 vouchers and 25 x £25 vouchers up for grabs for the remaining winners.
The chocolate brand the competition would be a fantastic opportunity for retailers to get creative and entice consumers into stores and mirrors the consumer-facing ‘Admit It, How Do You Eat Yours?’ campaign.
“We’re really excited to be taking the annual ‘How Do You Eat Yours?’ campaign to a platform that retailers can engage with directly,” Carianne Robertson, brand executive for Cadbury Creme Egg, said.
“Given the enthusiasm towards ‘How Do You Eat Yours?’ we wanted to create an opportunity for retailers to capitalise on consumer engagement, with the addition of 30 prizes to give further support and thanks to the retailers who have supported Cadbury throughout its 200-year history.”
Cadbury Creme Egg has been an icon of the season for over half a century, with 3.7 packs sold every second [Nielsen ScanTrack, 19w/e 31.03.24]. In 2024 the brand expanded its Creme Egg portfolio, launching the Cadbury Creme Egg Tablet, which sold a bumper 4.6 million units nationwide, making it the #1 NPD for the entire Easter 2024 season.
In addition, Cadbury Mini Eggs sold 11 million more units than in 2023 meaning shoppers are still looking to enjoy the iconic chocolate Easter treat. The mini-beasts of the Easter market remain the number one Easter SKU with the highest penetration of any Easter brand in the UK.
The Cadbury Mini Egg 110g and 360g sharing bars also had another successful Easter and were the #1 and #3 SKU respectively in the sharing novelties category in 2024.
Mondelēz International grew ahead of the Easter category in 2024 by almost 4 per cent and remains the number one supplier at Easter time. To make the most of the season, retailers are being advised to split Easter into three phases: getting off to a fast start (from 1 January to Valentine’s Day), building momentum (from Valentine’s Day on 14 February to Mother’s Day on 10 March), and then gearing up for a ‘gifting finish’ for the last three weeks the period reaches its finale.
The ‘fast start’ phase focuses on shoppers looking for small treats for themselves, such as Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Mini Eggs.
Here are the top tips from Mondelēz for a fast start to the season:
Be ready on day one of the season with sufficient stock of seasonal self-eat and sharing favourites from well-loved brands, such as Cadbury Creme Egg and Cadbury Mini Eggs.
Create awareness of the season with your customers using campaigns, competitions and promotions as a talking point.
Use POS from shoppers’ favourite Easter brands to highlight products and optimise incremental sales.
February sees the re-emergence of Pep & Lekker within the plant-based fixture, no longer as a tasty, pocket-sized savoury nibble, but as a functional cracker that once again supports improved gut health and a wholesome gluten-free agenda, made to an ambitious allergy-free recipe using 12 plant varieties made from the whole six plant groups spectrum.
Historically, savoury crackers have been the unsung heroes of the lunchbox or cheeseboard, paying the role of humble sidekick to whatever cheeses, chutneys or pickles might be on display.
It’s intriguing that a category that traditionally champions artisanal values, intriguing hero ingredients and sublime flavours is now welcoming an authentic disruptor to the fray who wants to add ‘functional prowess’ into the conversation. These are two varieties of all-natural, plant-based savoury seeded crackers that are high in fibre and beneficial Omega 3’s and an impressive source of beneficial protein and magnesium.
Bound with olive oil and not planet-unfriendly palm oil or vegetable oils, this gluten-free larder essential is menopause-friendly and includes no added sugar, securing its natural sweetness from apple puree and chicory inulin
Each 110g box contains approximately nine crackers and comes in Rosemary & Original flavour formats.
Nestlé Confectionery has unveiled its 2025 Easter range, comprising new treats and popular classics.
New for 2025: Milkybar Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream Giant Egg, Aero Melts Neapolitan Ice Cream Giant Egg, KitKat Chunky Chocolate Brownie Crunch Incredible Egg, KitKat Mini Eggs Sharing Bag and Rowntree’s Jellytastic Mini Egg Bar.
Ice cream fans can look forward to two new offerings from some of Britain’s most beloved confectionery brands. The Milkybar Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream Giant Egg is a delicious mix of half white chocolate shell and half raspberry flavour shell and features a Milkybar Raspberry Ripple Sharing Bag, filled with marbled white and pink raspberry flavour pieces.
Aero Melts Neapolitan Ice Cream Giant Egg combines Neapolitan flavours in a strawberry and vanilla flavour milk chocolate egg and comes with an Aero Neapolitan Sharing Bag containing bubbly milk chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla flavour melts.
There are two new products to try from KitKat. The indulgent KitKat Chunky Chocolate Brownie Crunch Incredible Egg is a smooth brownie flavoured milk chocolate shell with crunchy biscuit pieces and comes with two KitKat Chunky Double Chocolate Brownie bars.
The new KitKat Mini Eggs Sharing Bag features individually wrapped chocolate eggs filled with crunchy pieces of signature KitKat wafer, perfect for sharing this spring.
The Rowntree’s Randoms egg will return, bringing together Rowntree’s and Nestlé chocolate to create a shell with marshmallow pieces and Rowntree’s fruity flavoured sweets creating a delicious one-of-a-kind Easter egg. Lucky recipients of this egg will also receive a sharing bag of Rowntree’s Randoms.
Rowntree’s has its Jellytastic Mini Egg Bar joining the Easter line up this year. The milk chocolate bar is dotted with fruity flavoured jelly pieces mixing up textures and flavours to make an out of the ordinary treat.
Egg hunts are still part of the fun at Easter, and Nestlé Confectionery has three brands returning this year. The KitKat Easter Egg Hunt pack has eight milk chocolate Easter eggs made with signature KitKat crunchy wafer pieces, ready to be hidden away as part of an Easter Egg hunt activity. Smarties and Milkybar also have packs to join in with the fun.
For a premium experience, the After Eight Premium Egg returns, with a rich mint flavoured dark chocolate shell and a pack of signature After Eight mint chocolate thins.
The Milkybar Mini Egg Block is back again, with crispy milk chocolate mini-inclusions dotted inside a smooth white chocolate bar. Shoppers can expect to see egg offerings from many of the Nestlé Confectionery brands they know and love including KitKat, Aero, Rowntree’s, Lion, Toffee Crisp, Smarties, Munchies, Rolo, Yorkie and Milkybar.
All Nestlé Confectionery chocolate is made using 100% certified Rain Forest Alliance cocoa.
Muesli brand Alpen is to breathe life into the Cereals category with the reveal of a new recipe and redesign across its iconic muesli range. Backed by a £2m value investment into its first major consumer campaign in four years, it marks a significant milestone for the brand with a complete refresh of its cereal range hitting shelves this January.
The relaunch comes hot off the success of Weetabix’s recent investments back into the category, which saw new and consistent growth for its core line of cereals, with attention now turning to delivering similar success for the company’s second biggest brand, Alpen.
As part of its ambitious drive, the relaunched Alpen range features a brand new and improved recipe. Fruit is the number one driver of liking for Muesli lovers, so the new packs will now offer +30 per cent more fruit, delivering an even more delicious and flavoursome taste profile – which achieved a +30 per cent greater preference from consumer trials.
Embracing a more premium and modern brand identity, the new packaging design and branding boasts vibrant, natural illustrations that lean into the delicious, yet nutritious benefits that Alpen brings.
High in fibre, made with 100 per cent natural ingredients, non-HFSS compliant and made with a delicious blend of wholegrains, Alpen is backed by a revitalised message of being a tasty, but healthy choice for breakfast. Packed to the brim with toasted wheat flakes, creamy rolled oats, crunchy nuts and juicy raisins, the relaunch looks to bring Muesli back to its peak in cereal aisles at a key time of year for healthier eating.
“We’re proud to finally reveal our new look and recipe for Alpen, to rekindle that enjoyment of breakfast for Muesli lovers nationally," said Head of Brand Louise Vickers.
“Through a major investment into our product, our packaging and brand, we want to inspire UK consumers who are looking for a naturally delicious, wholesome start to the day that fits with their lifestyle.
“This is a significant new direction for Alpen and what we hope to be a welcome boost to the Cereals category – we’re excited to share more details in the months to come about what we have in store this year to further support our launch and boost Muesli back to its peak!”
Alpen’s new pack and recipe will be rolling out across all major channels, including grocery, retail, wholesale and out of home from 20 January.
The relaunched Alpen Original Muesli and Alpen No Added Sugar Muesli will be made available in new 950g and 550g variants, with +30 per cent more fruit across both formats.
Cadburyis building on its spirit of generosity with the introduction of its Cadbury Dairy Milk Made to Share range. The twelve limited edition on-pack designs for its Cadbury Dairy Milk 180g and 95g PMP bars are all centred around appreciation for each other and encourage shoppers to pick up a bar to share with someone they care about.
The suite of limited-edition bars, which will be available from the end of January, have been created to help shoppers celebrate kindness and drive connection, providing an easy and light-hearted way to spread positivity and recognition for loved ones and life’s everyday tasks. With front-of-pack designs posing questions such as “Who Pays the Subscription?”, “Who Drove?” and “Who Cooked?” to determine who gets the biggest share of chocolate, the playful new riffs on the iconic Cadbury Dairy Milk bars add a novelty to the sharing occasion and create a tongue-in-cheek and collectable gifting opportunity.
Each case of 180g and 95g Cadbury Dairy Milk bars will include three different designs from the suite of twelve, giving shoppers a range of designs to choose from to share with their loved ones. Significant media investment will bring the on-pack scenarios to life in a fun and engaging way, sending shoppers to store to find the bars which resonate the most with them. The extensive campaign will include out-of-home advertising, social activity and PR to drive awareness and excitement of this limited-edition range.
"We are really excited to be launching these limited-edition bars that touch on relatable acts of generosity,” said Connor Gould, Cadbury Dairy Milk Brand Manager at Mondelēz International. “Generosity is at the heart of our brand, so we wanted to make it easier than ever for people say a little extra thank you to those around them in everyday life, and to support retailers to drive sales around the sharing occasion."
Artisanal chocolate producer Gnaw continues to pursue its ambitious sustainable agenda in 2025 with the introduction of new eco-friendly pouches for their iconic Chocolate Buttons.
The state-of-the-art EvoPak RCM is a 100 per cent recyclable paper wrapper, which unlike a majority of its so-called environmentally friendly paper wrapper peers contains no polyethylene, which means it can effortlessly be disposed of in kerbside bins or into bespoke paper recyclable collections.
“EvoPak offers a significant step-change in planet-responsible snacking and confectionery wrappers as a result of significant advances in lightweight, multi-layer structures that preserve shelf-life whilst producing none of the harmful microplastics historically associated with snacking wrappers that unwittingly release harmful microplastics as they break down,” said MD Mike Navarro.
Gnaw is a leading voice within the UK’s thriving artisanal chocolate movement that sets great store by its proud sustainable stance; be that significant investment in clean energy (solar) that provides 70 per cent of its manufacturing needs, rejecting irresponsibly farmed palm oil and prioritising 100 per cent compostable/recyclable wrappers and vegetable inks for its headline chocolate range.
“Our sublime buttons remain a leading light within our ever-expanding premium chocolate portfolio, providing the perfect vehicle for our next sustainable initiative, championing awareness for cutting-edge wrapper technology that helps to address the catastrophic clogging up of seas and rivers with unwelcome micro-plastics,” Navarro concluded.