Nestle Biting Into $8 Billion Premium Market for Chocolate Growth: Retail
Nestle SA (NESN) , known for mass-market chocolates like the KitKat bar, is trying to get a bigger piece of the growing market for fancier sweets. Its idea: customized confections.
Internet shoppers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein can order a Maison Cailler taster pack with five kinds of chocolate. After completing an online survey to determine a “chocolate personality,” recipients get a bigger box with flavors and cocoa content selected for those particular taste buds.
Luxury products can succeed even amid the economic downturn, said Laurent Freixe, head of Nestle’s European business. Global sales of premium chocolate are growing faster than the overall market and may be worth about $8 billion a year, according to market researcher Mintel.
“It may sound counter-intuitive, but what’s happening in the crisis is a quest by consumers for value, for more- affordable product, but also for products that overtake their expectations,” Freixe said. “And what is squeezed in the middle is mainstream products.”
Eduardo Castro-Wright, Walmart's vice-chairman, said: “We are expanding our capabilities in today's rapidly growing social commerce environment.” Walmart is yet to develop a clear social commerce strategy.



