Popcorn to ruby bars: Chocolatiers branch out to woo millennials
From cannabis to quinoa, ruby to lowsugar: this is not your grandmother’s chocolate.
With the market for traditional candy bars in developed countries flagging as consumers shun sugary items for healthier treats, food companies are trying to make chocolate more appealing. Their tactics include gimmicks like Ritter Sport’s hemp-infused Chocolate and Grass bars (they don’t get you high), new flavours and colours, as well as formulas that cut down on sugar.
Some chocolatiers are even diversifying away from candy. Hershey Co., which began selling its classic bar 120 years ago, is moving into popcorn and potato chips, while Mars in November said it will buy a stake in health snack firm Kind. Just two months later, Nestlé agreed to sell its U.S. confectionery unit amid falling revenue and a focus on products like coffee and water.
“Sugar is portrayed as the new tobacco,” said Eric Bergman, a commodities broker at Jenkins Sugar Group. “Consumers are now shifting away from the iconic, sugar-filled chocolate brands that we know and into healthier foods. The largest chocolate companies have followed suit.”
While lower cocoa prices helped improve demand more recently, there’s a growing push to discourage consumption of sugar, which makes up almost half of an average chocolate bar. Advocacy groups are urging people to cut back and governments are taxing sugary drinks.
To counter health concerns, Nestlé is selling slimmed-down Milkybars in the U.K. and Ireland as part of a program to use 30 per cent less sugar. The bars include a type of sugar that dissolves quicker in the mouth, but produces a similar taste to before.
Hershey’s almost US$1-billion purchase of Amplify Snack Brands, which also sells protein bars, shows how the industry is branching out as it contends with falling demand for sugary products. The moves come as Euromonitor International sees 2018 chocolate sales growth in western Europe and North America below levels of several years ago.
There are some bright spots for chocolate consumption. Sales of premium brands such as Lindt & Spruengli are on the rise, demand in developing countries is growing and consumers are increasingly willing to pay more for dark chocolate, which contains more cocoa and less sugar, Bergman said.
Millennials are also keen to try new varieties, prompting more flavours and artisan brands.
Ruby chocolate was introduced by No. 1 cocoa processor Barry Callebaut last year and is shaded pink using only natural ingredients.