A year ago, virtually to the day, I wrote in The Grocer’s 2012 Top Products Survey that Kraft (I wasn’t yet comfortable with calling it Mondelez) had started to make its mark on Cadbury after acquiring it in 2010.

Successes such as the launch of Cadbury Dairy Milk with Oreo and the revamp of Cadbury Dairy Milk Bubbly clearly showed Mondelez (I still don’t like the name but I’ve got used to it) knew what it was doing. Far from killing off the brand, as some had suggested at the time of the acquisition, Mondelez was breathing new life into it, and new value.

But who would have predicted that the stream of innovation introduced in 2012 would become a flood that has added £62.5m to Cadbury Dairy Milk sales – an incredible 14% uplift to more than half a billion pounds?

As you can read in an exclusive excerpt from The Grocer’s 2013 Top Products Survey released today, more than half of that growth has been generated by a single range that didn’t come to market until this April. Marvellous Creations bars, with ingredients such as popping candy and salted pretzel pieces, have been, well, a marvel.

When Cadbury brought news of the launch to me back in March I thought the products sounded great but totally underestimated how much of a success they could be. They would generate loads of trial, I thought, but might fall short when it came to repeat purchase (this is why I write about products and leave the really clever stuff to the experts). With hindsight, the speed at which my kids devoured the samples I had been sent should have been a clue.

Another launch I am ready to be proved wrong about is the return of Nestlé Wonka chocolate bars. When they came to market in August, four months after the debut of Marvellous Creations, I wrote that they looked pretty ordinary in comparison. But, while they don’t live up to my vision of a Wonka-branded product, they’ve had – and maintained – good visibility in store and I now wouldn’t be shocked to see Wonka in our table of top 20 chocolate brands when we publish the 2014 Top Products Survey.

But I’m getting way ahead of myself. In less than a week you will be able to enjoy the 192-page behemoth that is this year’s Top Products report, while over the next four days you can enjoy a series of samples from an issue we are proud and delighted (and more than a little worn out) to bring you.

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