Despite their hefty £10 price tag, Lindt’s Dubai-Style chocolate bars sold out within just five days of their initial release in December. In March, Waitrose imposed a two-bar limit per shopper to manage high levels of demand for the viral treats.
But what goes up must come down. It was always going to be a tough sell, once the hype died down. Pricing a mass-market chocolate bar at £10 feels decidedly ambitious, even amid the ever-increasing cocoa prices.
And just last week, retail analyst and Grocery Insight CEO Steve Dresser posted a photograph to LinkedIn of a display of Lindt’s Dubai-style chocolate bars “reduced to clear” at £5 in Tesco, accompanied by the caption: “It’s over.”
Going viral
Initially inspired by chocolatier Sarah Hamouda’s viral Can’t Get Knafeh Of It bars, sold via daily Deliveroo drops from her Dubai business Fix Dessert, the Dubai-style chocolate trend has taken UK grocery by storm over recent months.
Lindt was the first major brand to launch its own iteration at the end of 2024, ahead of a wider rollout in Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Ocado and Tesco over the spring. Grocery sales of the treat peaked in the four weeks to 19 April, when 77,242 bars went through tills at an average price of £9.61, totalling £742k [NIQ].
In the four weeks to 12 July, however, 18,841 bars were sold at an average price of £9.47. It’s possible (some may say predictable…) that shoppers were intrigued and so tempted to try Lindt’s Dubai-Style bars once but were put off buying them again due to the high shelf price.
As Paul Gregory, MD at Edge Confectionery, commented on Dresser’s LinkedIn post, the trend is “not over, just overpriced”.
Affordable innovation
Gregory’s assertion is backed up by an uptick in sales of the bars in the four weeks to 6 September. As average price per bar dropped to £7.31, 36,537 units were sold through tills – a 93.9% increase on the rate of sale during the July dip [NIQ].
Canny fmcg retailers and suppliers took note of shoppers’ squeezed budgets, focusing their attention on affordable innovation to bring the premium trend to the masses. Lidl moved early, launching its own Dubai-style chocolate bar in March, which cost just £4.99.
Others followed as quickly as they could, with Kenco adding a Iced/Hot Dubai Chocolate Style Latte in June, and Fox’s launching Chocolatey Dubai Style Pistachio biscuits in July. Also over the summer, The Drinks Bureau added a limited-edition 8% abv Dubai Chocolate Style Espresso Martini, Iceland listed San Marco Dubai Chocolate ice cream sticks and Co-op added an Irresistible Dubai Style Pistachio Brownie.
Was this all too much of a good thing? Perhaps. But the proliferation of Dubai-style innovation chocolate has also served as a platform to introduce pistachio as a core flavour in confectionery.
The pistachio push
M&S has installed “nuts about pistachio” free-standing display units in stores, merchandised with its Pistachio & Shortbread Crunchy Clouds, Choc Marks Blonde Chocolate & Pistachio bar, Pistachio & Caramel bar, Collection Pistachio Crème and The Big Daddy Pistachio chocolate bar. Over the summer, Tesco introduced its Pistachio Centres bar, while Waitrose listed a Pistachio Cream treat.
Meanwhile, Ritter Sport has secured big four listings for its pistachio bar, which first launched into Sainsbury’s as a limited edition a year ago. It’s become Ritter’s “fastest-ever selling SKU in the UK” and was selling “over 100 units per store per week” in some Tesco stores in April, according to UK & Ireland MD Benedict Daniels.
Even Lindt has been innovating with pistachio flavours, beyond its now-reduced Dubai-style range. It launched Pistachio Lindor truffles in 2024, which it followed up with a complementary Easter egg in April. And despite losing a Tesco listing for its Dubai-style tablet, Lindt is clearly confident the range will continue to sell: it has just added White and 70% Cocoa versions of its Dubai-style tablet in stores.
Describing the new bars as “the perfect treat in the run-up to the festive season”, Lindt is looking to justify the premium price tag, positioning the bars as a gift rather than an everyday item.
Meanwhile, in the mults, it looks like affordable pistachio chocolate is here to stay.
No comments yet