The Freshness Advantage: How Mentos Is Building Relevance in a Changing African Confectionery Market

For an industry built around small pleasures, the confectionery market is undergoing a significant transformation.

Consumers are becoming more deliberate about what they buy, where they buy it and what they expect from the brands they choose. Economic pressure has made value and accessibility increasingly important, while urban lifestyles are creating greater demand for products that are portable, convenient and suited to consumption on the move. In South Africa, those dynamics are reshaping how brands compete for attention — and how they create relevance.

The opportunity extends well beyond South Africa. Africa’s confectionery market is projected to reach approximately US$5.72 billion in 2026 and is forecast to grow to US$8.32 billion by 2031. Urbanisation, a youthful consumer base and growing interest in innovative formats and flavours are among the forces supporting that expansion.

For marketers, the implication is increasingly clear: the brands that win will need to understand not only what consumers purchase, but the occasions and emotions behind those purchases.

A sweet picked up at a checkout, gum carried through a busy working day, or a roll shared between friends may be small consumption moments, but they represent something larger — convenience, refreshment, enjoyment and an accessible form of indulgence.

This is where Mentos has developed a distinctive position.

Since 1932, the brand has evolved from an iconic confectionery product into a global portfolio spanning candy and chewing gum, while maintaining a recognisable identity centred on freshness. Its parent company, Perfetti Van Melle, operates across more than 150 countries and describes Mentos’ product concepts, packaging and flavours as making it its most innovative and unconventional global brand.

That innovation matters because longevity in a fast-changing category cannot come from familiarity alone. Established brands have to know what makes them recognisable while continually finding new reasons for consumers to choose them.

Mentos has built that bridge through “Yes to Fresh.”

In South Africa, the platform positions freshness as more than a sensory experience. Mentos is a fresh take on life. A playful spirit that encourages you to have a little more fun and joy in dull everyday situation. It gives you a fresh mindset that brightens your mood to say yes to the unexpected, to new opportunities and to experiences outside the predictable.

 It connects freshness with new experiences, new opportunities, unexpected possibilities and the willingness to take the path less travelled.

That gives the brand a broader territory than a conventional functional proposition.

Fresh breath is a product benefit.

Fresh thinking is a brand philosophy.

The distinction is strategically valuable because it gives Mentos permission to operate beyond the confectionery aisle and into the cultural spaces where individuality, creativity and self-expression are being shaped.

It also reflects an important reality of the African market: there is no single African consumer. Consumption habits, retail environments, purchasing power and category preferences vary considerably from market to market. The opportunity for multinational brands is therefore to combine global brand equity with enough local understanding to make that equity meaningful in each market.

Mentos’ model is built around that balance — a globally recognisable brand supported by ongoing innovation designed to respond to local preferences.

The same principle is increasingly visible in how the brand participates in culture.

In South Africa, Mentos partnered with the South Africa Fashion Awards in 2025 as sponsor of the Best Fashion Designer award, recognising Rich Mnisi, while bringing the brand into the wider event experience. Mentos has subsequently renewed its partnership for the 2026 edition, returning for a second consecutive year.

The relationship makes strategic sense.

Fashion is fundamentally an exercise in fresh thinking. Designers reinterpret familiar influences, challenge conventions and create new expressions of identity. It is an industry where experimentation is not a departure from the norm — it is the mechanism through which the next norm is created.

That creates a natural intersection with “Yes to Fresh”.

For Mentos, participation in the creative economy therefore becomes more than a sponsorship opportunity. It provides a platform through which the brand can demonstrate its philosophy in a cultural environment where originality and individuality are already valued.

This is perhaps the larger lesson for the confectionery industry.

As consumers become more selective and competition for attention intensifies, enduring brands cannot rely solely on distribution, product familiarity or promotional activity. They need a distinctive point of view — one that can travel from the product to the consumer, from everyday occasions into culture, and from functional benefit into emotional meaning.

Mentos has had more than nine decades to build that territory.

Its opportunity now is to keep making freshness relevant to a new generation: not simply as something consumers taste, but as an attitude towards everyday life.

In a category defined by small moments, that may be one of the most powerful advantages a brand can own.