Companies involved in confectionary manufacturing are likely to be enjoying one of their strongest periods of the year, in the run up to Halloween.
According to the Times, Halloween is now the most important period in the shopping year, behind Christmas and Easter, with supermarkets seeing particularly strong demand for sweets and chocolate.
Retailer Sainsbury's told the newspaper that it is expecting sales of twice as much confectionary as last year, with many food manufacturers even rolling out specific Halloween versions of their most popular treats.
Echoing a similar sentiment, Tesco's UK marketing director Carolyn Bradley was quoted by the Times as saying: "Halloween has become one of the main seasonal events during the past ten years."
"Halloween has overtaken Valentine's Day so that today only Christmas and Easter are bigger."
Last week, meanwhile, it was suggested that a new sterilisation process could speeding food manufacture by simultaneously heating and shaking a number of products.
Typical Guttridge equipment used in the confectionary industry includes; hoppers – mobile loading hoppers – flexible bulk containers
