Mondelez is hoping to make a splash with the launch of Cadbury Dairy Milk bars containing a soft, flavoured centre.

Rolling out from next week, Cadbury Dairy Milk Puddles are 90g tablet bars available in two flavours, hazelnut and mint. The bars - which are moulded with eight ‘puddles’ that contain a soft, flowing filling - have an rsp of £1.49 and will also be available as £1 price-marked packs.

The bars have been developed by the Cadbury R&D team at Bournville, and are manufactured in Germany on an existing tablet production line that has been modified to make the chocolate ‘puddles’.

Mondelez said the new innovation was targeted at the sharing market and designed particularly to attract new, younger female consumers who “actively seek interesting new, indulgent products”. “This new innovation breaks all category conventions,” said Mondelez marketing director Matthew Williams, adding NPD was vital to “energising the chocolate tablet category and recruiting new shoppers”.

The company will hope the NPD boosts sales of Cadbury Dairy Milk, which rose just 0.4% last year [Nielsen 52 w/e 34 January 2015]. Sales of the brand’s core Marvellous Creations bars fell 25% to £33.7m over the period, though the total Marvellous Creations range grew in value thanks to the success of Easter eggs and bagged products.

The launch of Puddles will be backed by a £4m marketing campaign from May that will include TV, outdoor and digital activity.

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