Crackin’ good treats

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With Easter sales soaring and exciting new products hitting shelves, it’s time for retailers to make the most of the season, writes Shauna Bernard

Brand Central

17 February 2025

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Easter is big business, and this year, the numbers speak for themselves. According to recent Kantar research, seasonal confectionery sales hit a record-breaking €23.9 million in 2024, with chocolate Easter egg sales soaring 22% higher than last year.

Promotions played a key role in driving this growth, with more than 43% of Easter egg purchases made on deal, proving that shoppers are eager for value alongside their holiday treats.

Beyond the chocolate aisle, traditional Easter favorites also saw a boost. Hot cross bun sales rose by 7.7%, surpassing €1 million, as consumers embraced this classic staple for their seasonal celebrations. Meanwhile, online shopping continues to reshape retail, with digital sales surging by an impressive 19.5%, adding an extra €33 million to overall spending.

As retailers and brands navigate a competitive landscape, these figures highlight the power of strategic promotions and evolving shopping habits. With almost a quarter (24.9%) of total sales happening on promotion, discounting remains a key tool to attract and retain customers. At the same time, the growth in online spending signals a shift in consumer convenience, with more shoppers choosing to fill their Easter baskets with a click.

From leveraging promotions to enhancing digital experiences, understanding these trends is crucial for staying ahead in an increasingly dynamic market.

Golden delight

The iconic Lindt Gold Bunny is back, ready to charm families once again this Easter. Available in different sizes; 50g, 100g and 200g, as well as different flavours including milk, white, dark and salted caramel so you have the perfect gift for all the family.

Lindt Gold Bunny BUNNY

Renowned for delivering premium chocolate experiences, Lindt continues to push boundaries with innovative offerings that delight consumers and drive excitement in the Easter chocolate market.

This exciting Easter portfolio will be supported by a comprehensive marketing campaign, ensuring maximum visibility and engagement with consumers. Lindt’s campaign includes a strong presence across TV, online video, and outdoor advertising, alongside captivating in- store displays to drive impulse purchases with its new 360-degree campaign “Make Easter Sparkle”.

A fresh look

This Easter, Lindt’s beloved Lindor Shell Eggs range has received a vibrant new look, perfectly designed to capture the attention of shoppers. The updated packaging displays elegance while embracing Lindt’s signature premium visual, ensuring it stands out on the shelves.

With a variety of indulgent flavours, including best sellers Milk, Assorted, and new Dark Mint, the Lindor Shell Eggs range offers something for everyone, making it a must-have for Easter gifting or self-treating. The new design highlights the irresistible smooth Lindt chocolate and creamy filling that Lindor is celebrated for, reinforcing its position as a top choice for Irish shoppers during the festive season.

Lindt Gold Bunny Shell Egg Salted Caramel

Lindt has announced its latest innovation: the Lindt Gold Bunny Shell Egg 195g Salted Caramel. Combining the iconic Gold Bunny charm with the on-trend salted caramel flavour, this new product is a showstopper for Easter 2025.

Crafted by the Lindt Master Chocolatiers, the shell egg is made with the finest milk chocolate, filled with a touch of salted caramel for a perfectly balanced taste experience.

Available nationwide, this latest addition complements the already iconic Gold Bunny range, which continues to be a firm favourite with Irish families. The Salted Caramel Shell Egg promises to be a standout gift option, offering an indulging experience that reflects Lindt’s dedication to quality and craftsmanship.

Eggstra special

Shoppers can really indulge their loved ones this Easter with Lily O’Brien’s range of luxurious hand-crafted Easter Eggs, the perfect gift to celebrate with family and friends. Made with love in Ireland using Lily O’Brien’s signature chocolate recipe, this delicious range is sure to meet shoppers’ Easter gifting and treating needs.

This year Lily O’Brien’s popular Easter range has not only seen a creative facelift, but its continued search for improving sustainability. Every luxury egg it creates delivers happiness and quality for its consumers, along with reduced packaging waste.

Lily O’Brien has announced this year, all of its eggs have no plastic aperture or cavity, meaning the outer box is now 100% recyclable. Now, that is something Lily O’Brien’s is eggcited about sharing with retailers and consumers alike.

With Cocoa prices set to soar even higher this year, Lily O’Brien’s know consumers will need to ‘shell’ out a little more, but it doesn’t want to compromise on its packaging or product offering. With the demand for its luxury products increasing, Lily O’Brien won’t lose sight of meeting that luxury gifting need.

Pouch egg range

Engage your shoppers on a journey of discovery with Lily O’Brien’s three pouch eggs. You can choose from – Crispy Hearts, Sticky Toffee and Mallow & Cookies. Each delicious Milk chocolate egg comes complete with individually wrapped chocolates for an extra touch of indulgence.

Lily O’Brien’s Crispy Hearts, Mallow & Cookie, Sticky Toffee and Desserts Collection

Truffles eggs

Truffle fans rejoice as Lily O’Brien’s has created the ultimate treat this Easter season with two Truffles Easter Eggs. Salted Caramel and Milk Chocolate Truffles Egg. Each large Milk Chocolate Egg is accompanied by signature Lily O’Brien’s twist wrapped truffles. O’ooh so delicious and the perfect gift for all the truffles lovers out there.

Large luxury eggs

Luxurious and moreish, Lily O’Briens new and improved Large Easter eggs include the decadently delicious Desserts Collection Egg, along with the signature Lily O’Brien’s Sticky Toffee and Honeycomb Crispy Hearts. Each deliciously hand-crafted milk chocolate egg is complimented with a generous selection of mouth-wateringly delicious chocolates, now all that is left is to enjoy.

Easter gift bag

For a gift to really impress this year, Lily O’Brien’s Easter gift bag is the perfect choice. Packed with luxury, it features a delicious hand-crafted Lily O’Brien’s Milk Chocolate Egg with honeycomb crispy heart chocolates, the beautifully gift wrapped Ultimate Chocolate Collection and two Lily O’Brien’s share bags tastefully presented in a stylish gift bag. It is the perfect treat to delight every chocolate lover this Eastertime.

All Lily O’Brien’s Easter Eggs and boxed chocolates are carefully created and thoughtfully designed in County Kildare and are available to order through Tennant & Ruttle, contact your Sales Representative for more information.

www.lilyobriens.ie

Tasty twist

Shoppers can get their hands on egg-cellent new products and popular classics as Nestlé Confectionery brings its 2025 Easter range to shop shelves across Ireland. 

New for 2025: KitKat Chunky Chocolate Brownie Crunch Incredible Egg, Milkybar Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream Giant Egg, Aero Melts Neapolitan Ice Cream Giant Egg, KitKat Mini Eggs Sharing Bag and Rowntree’s Jellytastic Mini Egg Bar.

Nestlé Confectionery has announced a host of tasty new treats in time for the Easter season.

In the world of KitKat, there’s two exciting new products to try. 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.

Ice cream fans can look forward to two new offerings 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.

For those who want the best of both worlds, the Rowntree’s Randoms egg returns. The egg brings 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. 

Not missing out on the fun, Rowntree’s has its Jellytastic Mini Egg Bar joining the Easter line up this year. The milk chocolate bar is dotted with delicious 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. 

If talk of Easter has given you a spring in your step, there are lots of Easter treats to look out for. 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. 

Sweet legacy

Celebrate Easter with Cleeve’s Irish Confectionery, proudly supporting Irish brands and continuing its legacy as Ireland’s longest-established confectionery brand. Building on last year’s success and Tesco’ support for Irish brands, Ampersand has announced that the expanded and revamped Cleeve’s Easter Egg collection will be stocked in Tesco again this year.

Cleeve’s brings the perfect mix of tradition and innovation, showcasing Ireland’s confectionery heritage through premium, locally crafted products. The new Easter egg range highlights Cleeve’s commitment to quality, with a minimum of 30% cocoa solids for an indulgent chocolate experience and packaging that captures the charm of vintage Irish design.

The 2025 Cleeve’s Easter Egg collection offers something special for everyone, blending cherished classics with fun and festive treats, all proudly crafted using Irish milk and Cleeve’s time-honoured recipes. With over 140 years of confectionery heritage, Cleeve’s continues to celebrate its rich Irish traditions through every product.

The 2025 lineup includes:

Classic Irish Milk Chocolate Easter Egg (RRP: €7)

A timeless favourite made with rich Irish dairy milk chocolate and paired with indulgent Cleeve’s Chocolate Caramels, embodying the essence of Cleeve’s heritage.

Original Iced Caramels Easter Egg (RRP: €7)

A nostalgic delight featuring Cleeve’s iconic Iced Caramels, created using the same beloved recipe and techniques perfected over 90 years.

Macaroon Irish Milk Chocolate Easter Egg (RRP: €7)

A nod to the iconic Macaroon Bar, this egg blends Irish chocolate and coconut for a classic flavour, presented in refreshed, modern packaging.

Popping Candy Milk Chocolate Easter Egg

A playful addition to the range, combining creamy Irish chocolate with a burst of popping candy to add a spark of excitement to Easter celebrations.

Each product celebrates Cleeve’s rich heritage as Ireland’s longest-established confectionery brand, bringing tradition and joy to every Easter treat.

The Cleeve’s range represents more than just confectionery – it’s a tribute to Ireland’s rich history, craftsmanship, and dedication to supporting local brands. Retailers are encouraged to be part of the Cleeve’s story, offering customers a taste of this cherished Irish tradition this Easter.

Why Stock Cleeve’s in Your Store?

Trusted Irish Heritage: As Ireland’s longest-running confectionery brand, Cleeve’s offers a unique legacy that resonates with Irish consumers.

Supporting Irish Producers: With over 140 years of craftsmanship, Cleeve’s continues to use local ingredients and Irish milk, ensuring quality and sustainability.

For more information, visit cleevesirishconfectionery.ie or follow us on Instagram and Facebook. To place an order, contact your Ampersand representative or call the sales line at 01 4130100.

Easter elegance

Butlers Mini Bar Eggs

A visit from the Easter Bunny this Easter Sunday would not be complete without a delicious tasting, premium Irish-made chocolate egg from Butlers Chocolates – Ireland’s preferred brand of luxury Irish chocolates (source; Opinions Research 2024). A must-stock premium line this Easter, Butlers seasonal selection has everything you need to make Easter even sweeter for gifting and self-treat.

Butlers Easter range for 2025 includes beautifully designed, Signature Chocolate Easter Eggs with twist-wrapped chocolates in popular varieties of Honeycomb, Salted Caramel and Milk Chocolate.

Butlers ever-popular flame wrapped eggs, classic Boxed Eggs, adorable mini filled eggs and chocolate bunnies also feature in the joyful collection. A gorgeous spring-inspired set of small and large milk chocolate boxed eggs, accompanied by milk chocolate mini bars completes the range.

Butlers Chocolates are crafted using only sustainably sourced cocoa and zero palm oil. As part of the company’s continuing sustainability journey, Butlers have moved away from using recyclable plastic to protect Easter eggs, using paper instead.

The ribbons on Butlers Easter Eggs are made from recycled plastic bottles and packaging is fully recyclable. Butlers has also recently introduced new recyclable paper on all twist-wrapped chocolates. 

For enquiries and to place an order, please email the team at trade@butlers.ie.

Read more: Cracking good sales!

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