The product, which is owned by Mondelēz International, chalked up sales of £491M in the 52 weeks to August 16, 2014.
Mars Confectionery’s Galaxy melted the hearts of consumers, romping home in second place, as it did in data provided by IRI last year.
Nestlé’s Kit Kat slipped from third to fourth place, while a solid single-digit sales increase for Maltesers saw it overtake Kit Kat into third place.
Powerful new entrant
One powerful new entrant to the chart this year, storming into fifth place, was Kinder, which achieved almost 30% annual growth, by far the biggest leap seen by any brand. There was little to separate it from Mars Confectionery’s eponymous Mars bar, which took sixth place in IRI’s table.
“Kinder has grown mostly through the Kinder Surprise eggs, supported by a lot more trade promotion in the latest year,” said IRI director of strategic insight Tim Eales. And the brand looks set for further growth, with plans to expand into sharing and countline bags in 2015.
IRI’s figures burst Aero’s bubble, giving Nestlé little reason to celebrate. The chocolate brand disappeared out of its rankings altogether, having been in eighth place in last year’s table.
“Aero has indeed been struggling recently, despite increased levels of trade promotion,” said Tim Eales, IRI director of strategic insight. “There is a theory that it is losing to other ‘light’/’aerated’ products like Twirl, Wispa and even Maltesers, which have been doing very well.”
Other major movers
Mars and Snickers, in sixth and seventh place were the other major movers, suffering double digit declines in value, according to IRI. Meanwhile, M&Ms just nudge into the number 10 position.
IRI’s figures indicate growth in total value sales of chocolate confectionery remained largely flat at £2.5bn. Volume sales declined by 2.8% to 270.4M units.
Chocolate remains by far the largest sector in the confectionery category. The next biggest according to IRI is sugar confectionery, which is less than half the size, with value sales of slightly more than £1bn and volume sales of 152M units in the year to August 16.
IRI figures include major supermarkets, convenience stores, independent grocers and petrol station forecourts, but not discount or online channels.