Seasonal Sales Help Drive Gourmet Chocolate to $1.8 Billion by 2010

New York, April 12, 2006 — The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and Cupid helped sell more than a quarter of America's gourmet chocolate last year, and during the next four years will help drive overall sales to nearly $1.8 billion, according to Gourmet Chocolate in the U.S., a new report from market research publisher Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, a leading provider of industry-specific market research reports.

Seasonal sales tracked through supermarkets, drugstores, and mass merchandisers (excluding Wal-Mart) accounted for roughly 29% of gourmet sales in 2005, while overall tracked sales showed an impressive 20.2% growth over 2004. Packaged Facts projects that the overall gourmet chocolate market, which also includes untracked sales through specialty chocolatier boutiques, gourmet shops, convenience stores, warehouse clubs, and other non-chain stores, will grow at a CAGR of 6.4% from $1.3 billion in 2005 to $1.8 billion in 2010.

The lure of higher margins for gourmet chocolate has attracted the interest of large chocolate manufacturers, many of whom have introduced their own successful premium brands and/or acquired smaller, well-known gourmet manufacturers in the past few years. While the majority of gourmet chocolatiers are still small business, many of them European, the influence of the corporate chocolate giants has been instrumental in introducing gourmet chocolates into mass market channels.

“Gourmet chocolates have come out of the closet and are showing some muscle in the mass market arena with exceptional branding that is making gourmet indulgence a household phenomenon,” notes Don Montuori, the publisher of Packaged Facts. “Higher cocoa content, the health benefits associated with chocolate, and the introduction of organics, ‘single origin chocolates,’ and exotic flavors, such as grapefruit and habañeros, are having a major impact on this industry, helping it grow more quickly than standard chocolate.”

Gourmet Chocolate in the U.S. examines new product trends, offers competitive profiles of industry leaders (and up and comers), and looks at consumer trends surrounding premium chocolate. Priced at $1,995, this report can be purchased directly from Packaged Facts by clicking: http://www.packagedfacts.com/pub/1209571.html. It is also available at MarketResearch.com.

About Packaged Facts
Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes research reports on a wide range of consumer industries, including consumer goods, foods and beverages, and demographics. For more information visit www.PackagedFacts.com, or contact Tom Ehart at 240-747-3014, or tehart@marketresearch.com.