Who’s to blame when a flashy new food product from a global giant is a flop? The R&D team for failing on taste? The marketing team for failing on messaging? The sales team for failing on distribution? 

Whichever it is, inside Cadbury owner Mondelez, everyone will be watching nervously when its new ‘75% less sugar and fat’ chocolate bars hit the shelves in the near future.

The manufacturer is promising reformulated versions of Crunchie, Double Decker, Fudge and Fry’s Turkish Delight, doubling down on previous attempts at ‘low-sugar’ confectionery that have resoundingly failed to hit the mark.  

Three years ago, Mondelez launched its Cadbury Dairy Milk 30% Less Sugar after three years of development, 35 different recipes, and six rounds of consumer testing. The result, the manufacturer said at the time, cut sugar “while staying true to the iconic texture and taste profile of Cadbury Dairy Milk”.

Shoppers, however, were largely unimpressed. Sales scraped in at £1.9m in 2021, according to NielsenIQ’s latest figures, down 33% on the year before. For context, that’s less than its 17th most popular Easter egg – the Wispa Gold – which is available for just a couple of months a year.

Will the new ‘75% less sugar and fat’ bars do any better? Much will depend on how it’s sold to customers. Mondelez is planning for the reformulated products to be “alternatives” to its current range rather than replacements, meaning some differentiation in branding will be necessary.

Given development is still in early stages, those decisions on branding are still to come. They will pose some tricky questions. Does it again go strong on the ‘low-sugar’ message? Many believe this in itself is a major turn-off for shoppers, who assume ‘healthy’ confectionery means a sacrifice on taste. Were Mondelez to take this option, it would suggest it doesn’t buy into this theory and instead places the blame elsewhere for previous poor performances.

But if not differentiated as ‘low-sugar’, then what? How do you persuade a shopper to pick up a new, healthier version over the original they know and love? Especially when the jury is still out on whether ‘healthier chocolate’ is really what people want.

Many healthy versions have previously failed to hit the mark – see the demise of Nestlé’s Milkybar Wowsomes. And, as proven by buoyant chocolate confectionery sales, demand for sugary treats shows no sign of slowing.

That’s probably why, as an industry, little progress has been made on sugar reduction. According to the latest OHID sugar reduction report, there was a 26.9% increase in the tonnes of sugar sold in chocolate confectionery from 2015 to 2020.

Cadbury may be praised for trying to do something about that figure. But it has tried this route once before. This fresh attempt will reveal what lessons it has learned.

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