The company’s CEO last year called premium chocolate his “small intimate frustration” at a conference in Boston, but added that Nestlé had the “métier in chocolate. We just have to do it".
The firm’s chairman Peter Brabeck-Lemathe told Bloomberg this week that his company was premiumizing its Cailler brand in the hope of international recognition.
Cailler premiumization
ConfectioneryNews contacted Nestlé and it said it would share details of Cailler’s rollout in due course.
Cailler is currently mainly sold in Switzerland. It was introduced in 1796, making it the oldest Swiss chocolate brand still around today.
Nestlé recently introduced ‘Les Recettes de l‘Atelier’, an artisanal range to the Cailler brand. The product contains fruit & nut inclusions that are visible on the product surface.
Lindt and Ferrero no longer viable?
Euromonitor food analyst Pinar Hosafci told this site last year that Nestlé’s existing premium chocolate brands weren’t cutting it and said it should look to acquire brands such as Vosges Haut Chocolat or Lebanese chocolate brand Patchi.
Jon Cox, head of European consumer equities at Kepler Cheuvreux, told us in 2013 that fellow Swiss firm Lindt would be a good option but would cost around $13.7bn.
Lindt has since strengthened by adding US boxed-chocolate maker Russell Stover and posted double digit sales and net profit growth in 2014.
Nestlé had also been linked to Ferrero, before and after the death of long-time owner Michele Ferrero.
However, his son Giovanni Ferrero said last month the group “is not and will not be up for sale.”
Ferrero also posted strong sales an operating profit gains in its fiscal 2014 results this week.
Nestlé’s chairman said Ferrero had made it clear it was not for sale, so it was not an issue.