Cadbury Trebor Bassett is rolling out a cosy welcome for its hot chocolate drinks brands, after the company's 20-year marketing arrangement with Premier Foods came to an end this week.

The chocolate giant is taking its portfolio, which totals 80 SKUs and accounts for more than half the £73m hot chocolate retail market, back in-house and has indicated that it has big plans for the future.

Mike Tipping, head of customer relations, said that hot chocolate was already a sizeable market, with more than 800 million cups drunk in the UK every year. "Through investment, we aim to grow the number of people buying hot chocolate, frequency of purchase and spend per trip, to grow the category significantly."

Tipping also said that the company planned to extend the category into new occasions, possibly with new products, but it was too early to give details.

He did, however, confirm that there would be a signi­ficant marketing spend, with TV advertising ­scheduled for October.