Nestlé has hired Ferran Adria, a Spanish chef with three Michelin stars, to help reinvigorate its Swiss chocolate brand, Cailler, through the development of new chocolate varieties.
“Cailler is the oldest chocolate brand in Switzerland (1819) but it needed a renewal, a re-launch,” Philippe Oertlé, spokesman for Nestlé Suisse, told just-food today (14 January).
Europe’s largest chocolate producer hopes to regain business from low-cost private label and premium producers. Nestlé chocolate sales, which constituted 12% of Nestlé’s US$66.3bn revenue in 2004, have suffered as consumers are increasingly drawn to high-end chocolates with higher cocoa content or have opted for cheaper own brand bars.
The new varieties of chocolate, including jasmine tea flavour, will first be launched on the Swiss market and will then be released at an international level, Oertlé said. Cailler will try to offer 12 new products each year – one each month – he added.
The first products to be developed, with their new packaging, will be on the market at the end of February.
