Many shops are taking a hit on their Easter egg prices, but everyday bars are still better value, writes Kate Holmquist
Suzanne Fraser was on her way to visit family this weekend with a 2.5kg (5.5lb) chocolate bunny in the back of the car, for someone very special. "Next year, we'll have one even bigger," she says.
Fraser is a spokeswoman for Lir Chocolates, which began its annual egg-making spree last December, producing 350,000 Easter eggs. It's just one of the boutique chocolate makers that has helped make the luxury Easter egg, Easter basket and frisky bunny an upmarket alternative to the mass-produced eggs moulded in plastic and surrounded by acres of bright cardboard, emblazoned with the names of chocolate bars you can buy any day of the week.
It's the mass-market eggs, eschewed by chocolate snobs, that are glutting the market this week and selling for 10 per cent less than last year.
Eurospar has been selling mid-sized "teenage" eggs made by major multinational manufacturers at three for €7.49, about €2.50 each, even lower than Tesco at three for €9. Last year, the same eggs were selling at three for €10. Shop around and you'll find them even cheaper.
In the UK, retailers have admitted to using milk chocolate Easter eggs as loss leaders. The Guardian newspaper this week reported on egg wars, with hollow eggs with two bars selling for 74 pence each in UK Tesco stores - a third of the price they sell for here.
In Ireland, retailers deny taking a loss on eggs - as well they might, considering these figures. But when a large Butler's egg costs €16.99 in Tesco and €11.59 in Eurospar, it's obvious that Eurospar are surrendering a €5.40 profit.
Or are they? If the cost of a Butler's egg draws the shopper in to fill the trolley with the full works for Easter, then the discount on the egg can be easily made up. But Eurospar's spokesman says that there's no egg war.
We're spending €40 million on eggs this Easter, according to an estimate by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC). Fraser laughs at this, citing one major retailer who she reckons will sell €40 million worth of eggs on its own.
Everyone agrees that the trend is cheap chocs for the kids and expensive ones for the parents, and at the lower end of the market, it's all about quantity.
There's some good value here if you look hard enough. A Dairymilk egg costs about the same per kg as a Dairymilk bar. You wonder then, who's eating the cost of the packaging? Cadbury Ireland, which makes Dairymilk and recently bought the chocolate snobs beloved Green & Black's brand, wouldn't comment on these mysteries of egg sales and marketing.
Masterfoods spokeswoman Catherine Bent says that chocolate eggs are only 1 per cent of its market and the profits are in the filled bars people buy every day.
Bars are definitely better value. The three-for-nine offer in Tesco covers eggs ranging in weight from 185g (6.5oz) to 244g (8.6oz), so if it's chocolate you're interested in, read the label. A Kit Kat Chunky with a racing game clocks in at €64.27 per kg in Tesco - a lot to pay for a game with an egg attached.
Even the Irish boutique chocolate-makers can't match €64.27 per kg for an egg. A Butler's large boxed egg, if you buy it at €16.99, works out to cost €49.25 per kg and a Bewley's hand-crafted traditionally decorated chocolate egg comes in at €39.98 per kg. Lir's hand-decorated Misbehavin' Egg is €42.46 per kg in Tesco.
Luxury eggs may cost more per kg, but they look the part, with their pastel colours and old-fashioned appearance. Packaging is the clue to where the real profits are.
A Butler's egg looks beautiful, but if you want to eat fine chocolate not in the shape of an egg, and organic to boot, then you can buy Butler's chocolate for €29.90 per kg in the shape of a bar in Eurospar - three-fifths of the per kg price in Tesco.
Lindt chocolate can be bought for €2.29 per 100g (3.5oz) , but its extravagantly packaged eggs are €16.99 for 360g (12.7oz), which is about €51 per kg in Eurospar. This includes truffles, mind you.
Recyclers have been looking at the issue of packaging, which transforms an otherwise dull chocolate offering into the modern-day equivalent of a pagan symbol of spring. The traditional Cadbury's Creme Egg, with its minimal packaging, is the most environmentally friendly. Recycling bloggers even suggest that if you buy big eggs in plastic moulds, then save the moulds and use them next year to fill with chocolate in a home-made egg factory - which seems a bit besides the point, since it's the receiving of the egg that interests most of us.
Children love the bright packaging and accessories inside - Bratz and Barbie at €8 each are the big sellers, according to Tesco. Adult consumers have bought into a whole new market of luxury eggs that adults buy for each other. This indulgence of expensive boutique eggs seems to be where the real profits lie - bows, tissue paper, baskets and all.