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Manufacturers of sweets follow trends

The Euromonitor predicted the most powerful "megatrends" in the food industry for 2018. These are mainly: healthy lifestyle, premiumisation, plant-based foods, shopping experience (shopper expierience), modern grocery store, regional influences, high quality. Global brands of sweets watch innovation closely and become more and more bold .
A healthy lifestyle is at the top of the trend pyramid, affecting almost all categories and geographical areas in the food market, and premiumisation is the most important in all regions, primarily affecting the snack sector.
According to Euromonitor, the trend number one is "return to nature and lack of sugar".The food industry continues to focus its attention on the nutrition and well-being of consumers. There was also an increase in the importance of "raw food" - uncooked or unprocessed without heating above 48 deg. C in order to preserve the majority of natural vitamins and minerals. One of the products that Euromonitor mentioned as related to this trend was raw chocolate. The next important trend is "naturally functional" products, i.e. fermented foods, ancient seeds and probiotics as well as healthy fats. This, in turn, may be an opportunity for cereal cake producers.
Confectionery companies focus on innovation. These brands tend to use several megatrends at the same time and flexibly respond to the changing needs of consumers. Therefore, they quickly innovate.
In December 2017, American giant of chocolate, Hershey, took over Amplify Snack Brands for approximately USD 1.6 billion. Nestlé also moved the chocolate research center from Switzerland to the UK to better focus on breakthrough innovations in the confectionery category.