Key innovation trends from retailers’ Easter 2024 range previews

Easter comes around every year, but the retailers always manage to put a new spin on seasonal treats from chocolate eggs to hot cross buns – and 2024 is no exception Recent weeks have seen a swathe of new seasonal products land on shelves, offering insight into the categories and flavour combinations retailers are banking on to drive sales over the long weekend. We’ve identified five of the standout trends from retailers’ Easter 2024 ranges below: 1. Hot cross buns can be sweet or savoury In an effort to make hot cross buns trendy for 2024, retailers have unveiled an array of off-beat variants. Savoury options include Co-op’s Irresistible Hot Hot Hot Cross Buns (£1.60/four), made with dried jalapeños and chilli peppers, bird’s eye chilli powder and sweet chilli sauce; and Morrisons’ The Best Extra Mature Cheddar & Red Leicester (£1.25/four) buns. Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s have favoured sweet innovation, with Extremely Caramely Hot Cross Buns (£2/four) and Taste the Difference Sticky Toffee Hot Cross Buns (£1.50/four) on shelves at the respective retailers. Read more:
Easter chocolate prices soar up to 50% in the supermarkets
Hot cross bun taste tests and UPF dupes dominate TikTok
Eggs, cookies and hot cross bun cheddar: what’s new for Easter 2024? 2. Plus, they’re crossing over into new categories Ever wondered what a hot-cross-bun-panettone-hybrid looks like? Look no further than Waitrose’s Hot Cross Bunetonne (£8/500g), an Italian cake made with butter, sultanas and candied orange peel. It comes with a sachet of icing sugar and a stencil for shoppers to decorate it at home. Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, has taken the flavours of a hot cross bun into its Taste the Difference Free From Tarts (£3.25/190g) and Hot Cross Chicken (£10/850g), a truly unique piece of NPD featuring British chicken breast filled with a pork and orange stuffing, topped with a mixed spice glaze and finished with an all-butter puff pastry cross. 3. Honeycomb chocolate is having a moment Move over salted caramel. Honeycomb Easter eggs are all the rage this year, with Aldi, Co-op and Sainsbury’s all bringing out their own versions. Aldi’s rippled milk chocolate egg (£4.99/200g) is studded with honeycomb and pretzel pieces. Sainsbury’s’ milk chocolate Taste the Difference egg (£8/230g), meanwhile, features roasted corn and crunchy honeycomb inclusions. Finally, Co-op’s Good Egg (£7/180g) is a blend of Fairtrade dark and blonde chocolate, with honeycomb and a hint of salt. Read more:
Mega-egg trend dominates Easter NPD launches
Clarence Court launches limited-edition traditional breed egg box
Hot Crossy Bs and #NoFarmersNoFood: this week in grocery on social media 4. The orange chocolate trend isn’t over yet The trend’s longeveity is evidenced by Aldi and Sainsbury’s both launching orange chocolate Easter eggs for 2024. The former is a milk chocolate, marble-patterned egg (£6.99/240g), while the latter is made of 55% dark Belgian chocolate, and features Italian candied orange pieces and crunchy sugar pearls (£8/230g). Sainsbury’s also has added chocolate-orange Free From Hot Cross Buns (£2.50/280g), while Morrisons has added Double Chocolate & Orange Hot Cross Buns (£1.25/four) ones, featuring dark and milk chocolate. 5. Popcorn has gone seasonal Popcorn has made a surprise appearance in retailers’ Easter confectionery lines. Marks & Spencer’s Scrummy Bunny Munch (£9/460g) features white chocolate & raspberry popcorn, mixed in with selection of jelly fried eggs, carrots & bunnies, milk chocolate pretzels, sugar coated crispies and milk chocolate malt balls. Aldi, meanwhile, has unveiled a duo of Poppin’ Choc tablets (£2.49/100g), both featuring popcorn among other inclusions.