Dive Brief:

• Information Resources Convenience All Scan data found that non-chocolate convenience store candy sales including mints, licorice, taffy and breath fresheners climbed 2.4% in 2016, according to Convenience Store Decisions. 

• Gum sales fell 2.2% during this period compared to the same period in 2015, while the mint category held strong. Breath fresheners grew 12.26% since 2015 and plain mints grew 4.13%. Research suggests that American consumers crave a wider variety of flavors and textures in the gum category.

• “We expect innovation and seasonal items to continue to provide growth for retailers, while gum will continue to show decline,” Sheril Retson, a Chevron category manager-center of store, told Convenience Store Decisions. “A longer Easter holiday season in 2017 could help lessen the impact from soft sales. Overall, we expect continuous growth in non-chocolate items, new promotional vehicles and innovation in standard and king bar pack types to help keep the CGM category growing.”

Dive Insight:

Consumer desire for convenient food applications and dynamic flavor profiles are trickling down to the breath freshener segment, and it appears that mints are adapting faster than gum.

Though the majority of consumers eat mints to freshen their breath, many view mints as a pseudo-candy and seek unique flavors such as fruit juice, coffee and caramel from this category. Gum flavor can fade in just a few minutes, making mints both a quick fix for bad breath and a tasty to-go treat. 

Consumers are also buying gum and mints in larger containers to keep in their purses or cars. Other non-chocolate sweets, as well as food in general, are also are selling well in large-size packs, and packaging materials for such products have also mimicked the changes seen in gum and mint packs. Part of the reason for these changes is to reduce the overall quantity of packaging as sweets companies, like others, make greater efforts to interact more sustainably with the environment.