The Pre-Release Context (Edexcel A Level Business): Revision Note

The 2026 pre-release context

• This year the context is the confectionery and biscuit industry, and the small, national, and international businesses operating in this market

• To prepare for this year’s context, you should research:

  • Current trends in the consumption of confectionery and biscuits

  • Business growth in the UK and world confectionery market

  • Different businesses in the UK confectionery retail market: independents

    and multinationals

  • The external business environment and its impact on small businesses operating in the confectionery market

  • Global marketing by confectionery businesses

  • Local, national and international economic influences on confectionery businesses

• You cannot take any of your research or investigation data carried out as part of the pre-release into the examination

Using the pre-release context

Make the most of the pre-release themes

• The pre-release outlines key topics (such as consumption trends, business growth and global marketing by confectionery businesses)

• Although the source booklet you are given on the day of the exam will contain unseen extracts, they’ll connect to these broad themes

Gather broad knowledge

• Having some context about current trends in the consumption of confectionery and biscuits lets you spot key issues quickly. Yet there’s no need to cram endless stats - your chief priority is using the brand-new data from the exam extracts

• Read about how the external business environment impacts small businesses in the confectionery market

• Understanding the “why” behind numbers means you can interpret them more easily under exam conditions

• The exam might focus on a niche biscuit manufacturer or a large multinational chocolate company

• A general sense of trends and problems in the confectionery industry will help no matter which angle appears

Practice handling unseen extracts

• Paper 3 introduces brand-new extracts in the exam itself

• You must read them quickly and apply business principles on the spot

Strengthen your numeracy skills

• Paper 3 typically includes calculations or data interpretation (e.g. profits, capacity, or market share). Many students lose marks by rushing or mixing up figures

• Make sure you’re comfortable with break-even, profit margins, ratio analysis, and so on

• After doing a quick calculation, practise adding a sentence about what that number really means for the business scenario

Plan for essay questions in context

• In the exam, your responses must be grounded in the confectionery industry extracts. General discussion of business concepts alone isn’t enough

• Perfect your structure for each type of question (8-, 10-, 12-, and 20-mark)

• Your structure must provide opportunities to

  • State a clear point or define the concept

  • Apply to the scenario - quote facts or figures from the extract

  • Analyse with a chain of reasoning (causes, effects, potential outcomes)

  • Evaluate by balancing pros/cons or introducing “it depends” factors

• Show you can see both positives and negatives. For example, a small, niche biscuit manufacturer may benefit from increasing incomes, but struggle to gain market share from multinational competitors

Be ready for the unexpected

• Although you know the general theme, the specific businesses or statistics in the unseen extracts might surprise you.