Premium chocolatiers thrive as consumers develop taste for luxury

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Luxury chocolate ignores the costs of volatile raw materials to enjoy the prosperity of demand, saying that some consumers respond to high prices and reduce cocoa content in collective market products by trading to distinguished offers.
Cocoa prices multiplied three times last year with bad weather in the world’s main West Africa, where chocolate companies achieved cost to customers through high prices.
Horshey’s and Oreo Mondelēz warned about profits in February, after reporting a decrease in sales sizes in 2024, while the Nestlé Sweets section, which owns Kitkat, had a decrease in sales last year.
However, the distinctive end of the market proves to be more flexible, with the help of the larger margins that help absorb the increasing costs. High -end sweets also notice a counter -trend amid the cost of the living crisis, as ordinary consumers seek to get luxurious elements despite the highest Prices.

“If the Mars tape is much more expensive than it was, people think” may trade, “said Daniele Ferrero, CEO of the private sector Venchi.
“Even the low quality product [now has] Very high price, so the best consumer will choose. ”
The CEO of Johannes Lodrachs said that the luxury brands Newhaus, Geof De Bruges, Corni Port Royal and artists have achieved strong growth for Belgian parents, Combajny de Boua Sofg last year, while Switzerland doubled Ludrach.
In contrast, Barry Calibut, the world’s largest chocolate manufacturing company that provides most of the world’s major desserts, told a decrease in sales volume in the first half of the last financial year, and blamed for “unprecedented fluctuations” in the cocoa markets.
Dirk Van de Pot, CEO of Mondelēz this year, said the company was moving “unprecedented cocoa costs” while Hershey noticed in its annual report that it “faces comprehensive declines in consumer demands for our products.” Cocoa futures exceeded $ 12,000 per ton in December, but it has since decreased to less than 8,500 dollars.

The CEO of Neuhaus, Isabel Bayrt, said that the distinctive brands “maintain their quality and craftsman in a better position to overcome these market conditions.”
Many major chocolate makers quietly reformulated the recipes to protect profits from high costs, and often reduced cocoa content and replace them with fats and other flavors.
This should put excellent chocolate makers in a “more difficult situation” because their products have the highest cocoa content and “they have to adhere to these proportions.”
However, with the luxury chocolate to a large decrease in reducing cocoa content and instead raised prices, customers have mostly loyal.
Laudrash said: “Even if the consumer does not know that, that will destroy the distinguished culture that we want to celebrate. Our commercial issue proves that you can get chocolate from the highest level … and get its price.”

Ferrero of Venchi has seen an additional range of distinguished brands to take advantage of the wider sweets industry problems in the event that cocoa prices cannot be predicted.
He said: “For every consumer, he decides to buy highly super -chocolate frequently, we hope that we have two consumers trading from large chocolate to distinctive chocolate.”
“If you are buying a Mars bar, are you actually a chocolate lover anyway?” He asked. “How much chocolate you get in Kitkat?”
Nestle said that the Kitcat recipe had not changed, adding that the popularity of the chocolate bar showed “the continuous call to the established brands that offer delicious products.” Mars did not respond to the comment.
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2025-04-20 11:00:00