Cadbury Trebor Bassett is relaunching its Bournville brand and developing a premium Double Chocolate variant of Dairy Milk to tap into the major consumer trends towards plain chocolate and indulgence.
Both developments are expected to launch in the first quarter of next year, when parent company Cadbury Schweppes will also introduce its Trident chewing gum to the UK.
The moves are part of the company's plans to focus on four key areas in 2007 - premium, wellbeing, gifting and affordability.
Bournville has been a sleeping giant in Cadbury Trebor Bassett's portfolio for the past few decades but recent interest in dark chocolate and the health credentials of cocoa-rich products has encouraged the company to refocus its attention on its dark brand, according to Cadbury Schweppes CEO Todd Stitzer. "We are relaunching Bournville next year and trying to take advantage of the wellbeing element," he said.
Double Chocolate will contain a higher cocoa content than standard Dairy Milk and is expected to be similar to Nestlé's premium Double Cream countline, which was withdrawn from the market last November because of poor sales.
Despite the failure of Double Cream, Stizter said the time was right to develop more premium versions of its standard countlines. "Cadbury Schweppes needs to take better advantage of dark chocolate and milk chocolate. There is a platform called superior indulgence and this type of chocolate is growing significantly faster than the standard end of the market."
Trident, meanwhile, will tackle Wrigley's supremacy in the UK chewing gum market, where it has a 98% sales share. It will not be the first time Trident has been sold in the UK, but it is Cadbury Schweppes' first attempt with the brand in the UK since it bought it from Pfizer in 2003.
"We chose Trident because there was some residual equity and it is our largest global gum brand," said Stitzer.
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