“The calls for the return of Caramac were heard loud and clear,” Nestle brand manager Lisa Butterworth said with pride yesterday, as she announced a limited return of the beloved chocolate bar, which was discontinued last year after a more than 60-year stint on newsagents’ shelves.
But for many, the Caramac comeback will prove just a sticking plaster on the pain left by the recent trajectory of the chocolate bar industry, with a number of favourites having vanished from shelves in recent years – Milky Ways, Breakaways and Yorkie Biscuit Bars being just some of the casualties – along with a series of price hikes on some of the nation’s most-loved bars.
But must it be this way?
Well, of course, not all good things can last forever and, most often, the cause for discontinuance of these ‘beloved’ chocolate bars is that they are not quite beloved enough, with declining sales the most commonly cited justification for cuts. But larger industry factors are also at play, with confectionery brands under significant pressure from rapidly rising cocoa prices, which jumped more than 200 per cent in the last year alone. Behind the spike lies huge problems in supply, driven by a combination of climate change, ageing farmers and cocoa smuggling.
Cocoa prices per tonne. Source: Nasdaq
Cadbury, Nestle and Lindt have all cited cocoa costs as a major headwind this year, driving hiked-up chocolate bar prices, which have been increasing at nearly twice the speed of other food and drinks at supermarkets.
So perhaps the heady days of cheap chocolate rushes are behind us. Our advice? Stock up on Freddos now.