Swiss confectionery sees drop in 2015
Swiss confectioners suffered a 1.6% drop in turnover in 2015, despite selling 2.9% more products. The domestic market recorded a decline in quantities and turnover. Export revenue also decreased, even though sales volumes rose considerably. Overall, the industry held firm in a difficult currency situation.
During 2015, the 14 industrial manufacturers of Swiss confectionery were unable to consolidate the turnover achieved the previous year. Despite a 2.9% sales increase to 33, 764 tonnes, sector turnover dropped by 1.6% to 348 million franc. The quantity increase was due to the gain in jelly sweets and gumdrops and hard sweets, coupled with the rise in sales for Swissmedic-registered item and sugar free products. Sales volumes for other moulded confectionery, soft sweets and sugar coated products, however, declined.
Domestically, companies in the Swiss confectionery industry sold 9.7% fewer items in 2015 compared to the previous year. This resulted in a 4.1% turnover decrease to 94 million francs. The sales volumes in most product categories recorded a negative result at a domestic level.
While the quantity of imported confectionery only dropped by 0.8% last year, the total domestic sales volume (local and imported confectionery) decreased by 3.0%. The more intense decline in domestic own-production sales compared to imported volumes saw the local manufacturers’ market share shrink by 7%, i.e. from 25.4% (2014) to 23.6% (2015).
Export business saw a sales volume of 27,564 tonnes; corresponding to 6.3% more confectionery sales than the previous year. Yet this only enabled the confectionery industry to record a turnover of 254 million francs, and therefore a 0.6% loss. Export volumes particularly increased for sugar-coated products, jelly sweets and gumdrops, and sugar-free products. The export share in total production rose from 79.1% to 81.6% as a consequence of the declining sales volumes on the domestic market.
