Nestlé has discontinued its Caramac chocolate brand after more than 60 years on the market.
The fmcg giant today confirmed the move after Paula Swan, owner of Dalkeith bakery Pastel, claimed on social media that the bar had been “cancelled”.
“So it’s a sad day, it’s official, there will be no more Caramac bars off the production line,” she wrote.
Swan wrote that she had bought up “as many boxes as I could” of the treats to continue making her bakery’s signature Caramac éclairs.
A Nestlé spokeswoman today confirmed that it had decided to discontinue Caramac after “a steady decline in sales over the past few years”.
“We are very sorry to disappoint fans of Caramac,” Nestlé said.
“We know fans will be disappointed to see it go, but this change will enable us to focus on our best-performing brands, as well as develop exciting new innovations to delight our consumers’ tastebuds.”
Caramac was originally launched to the UK market by Mackintosh’s in 1959. Its name is a combination of ‘caramel’ and ‘Mackintosh’.
The company merged with Rowntree’s to form Rowntree Mackintosh Confectionery in 1969, before it was taken over by Nestlé in 1988.
At the time of writing, Caramac 30g was still on Sainsbury’s shelves, but had disappeared from sale in all other supermarkets [Assosia 12 w/e 8 November 2023].
It comes after Cadbury brought Caramilk, its own modern take on caramel chocolate, to the UK in 2021.
The golden chocolate, which was previously available only in Australia, went on to generate £8.5m in its first 12 weeks [NIQ 52 w/e 11 September 2021].
Nestlé hoped to mimic its success with the launch of its own Golden Collection in March this year.
Two of these SKUs – Munchies Gold and Smarties Gold Buttons – are made with Caramac, with the caramel chocolate bar’s branding featuring on pack.
Both were still widely available at the time of writing. However, the Nestlé spokeswoman confirmed production of these particular products would “not continue after 2023”.
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