We ask independents if they have seen their confectionery sales shrink and, if so, what could be causing this Paul Cooke, proprietor, Costcutter, Whitstable, Kent It's difficult to say if sales are down overall. We're a seaside business with a large confectionery trade and suffer a seasonal summer drop when customers switch to ice cream. I'd say that our sales are static at best. I think this is because confectionery faces so much competition from the growth in snacks of all kinds. Then there's mobile phone cards. Teenagers and children spend huge sums on them and as their money is limited it must be taking away from purchases such as confectionery. Where sales are doing well is on promotions, such as four for 99p. We run these constantly, changing the offer every three weeks. Mark Cleary, proprietor, Spar, Blackley, Manchester Our confectionery sales are down, particularly on chocolate slabs and, to a lesser extent, on countlines. It's not just the summer season either, because it is down year on year. I've moved the display around, but it has not had much effect. Multibuy promotions such as five for 99p are the big sellers. All stores are doing this and selling more, but it is hitting turnover as a percentage. We've noticed children are buying more snacks such as Cheestrings and Pepperami, which must be taking sales away from confectionery. There haven't been any really big product launches for a while and these normally boost interest and sales. There have been lots of variations, but these only cannibalise sales from the main brand, which is not a good thing. Alkesh Gadher, proprietor, Spar, Isleworth, Middlesex Our sales of confectionery during the past three months and over the year have shot up, but that's because of our location. We have a university, colleges, a railway station, crown court and hospital on our doorstep, so we get a very large passing trade. We have a five metre run of confectionery and get a lot of impulse sales from that. My only criticism is that there are too many variations coming on to the market and too few innovations to capture people's interest and sales. Philip Horsfield, proprietor, Allerdene Food Markets Gateshead Confectionery has taken a pounding because there is less disposable income to spend on it. Last year we saw a decrease in sales due to children spending a chunk of their pocket money on mobile phone cards, rather than on confectionery. This year sales have levelled out. But the market hasn't seen much real innovation recently, which we could do with to kickstart sales. We run a large number of multibuy promotions, which keep volume high to the detriment of the wider range, so it's a two-edged sword. The only adjacent merchandising we do is to have a soft drinks chiller in the confectionery section. It helps boost impulse sales of confectionery in summer when people go to the chiller for drinks. Arjan Mehr, proprietor, Londis, Bracknell, Berkshire Sales are static as opposed to up or down. We have a five metre run of six shelves and sales are £1,500-2,000 a week, including boxed chocolates. Bagged sweets, countlines and twist wraps are our best sellers. The growth in snacks is having a definite impact on confectionery sales. We have an instore bakery and notice that children are spending more of their pocket money on the hot sausage rolls and doughnuts we do rather than on confectionery. Andrew Dike, proprietor, Nisa Stores in Dorset and Somerset Our figures are up on last year in all our stores, so I've not noticed a downturn in confectionery sales. However, this could be because our Crewkerne store is based in the middle of a housing estate with the advantage of regular customers, and our Dorchester store is on a busy road with lots of passing trade. We also benefit from being part of the Nisa buying group, which enables us to do very good promotions that we change every three weeks. Promotions are a big part of our confectionery trade and customers are encouraged to come in and buy because of them. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}

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