Dressing for trick or treat

Families entering into the spirit of Halloween have boosted the spend on the fancy dress festival to £330m according to AG Barr.

The Irn-Bru manufacturer suggests one of the best ways for retailers to take advantage is with fun, spookily themed point-of-sale material.

AG Barr Halloween copy

Head of marketing Adrian Troy said: “The British passion for Halloween has been steadily growing over the years and it now represents an unmissable sales opportunity.

“Creating theatre in-store is key when it comes to maximising sales and making use of point-of-sale material is a great way to catch shoppers’ attention.

“Displays can boost sales by up to 392%.”

He added that confectionery and soft drinks dominate the Halloween spend and affordability is key.

“Shoppers will be looking to stock up on take-home packs of soft drinks favourites, as well as smaller pack formats to hand out to trick-or-treaters,” he said.

Quoting Nielsen figures, Chewits says the Halloween confectionery category is now worth £26.8m.

And it suggests that with Halloween falling at a weekend this year even more people will be planning parties at home or expecting more trick or treating children.

It has launched three themed packs for the occasion: Vampire Fangs, Xtreme ChewMix and ChewMix.

Commercial manager Bev Seymour said: “Halloween is becoming increasingly popular and is one of the biggest occasions in the sugar confectionery calendar.”