Cadbury has assured The Grocer that it has not reformulated its Bournville dark chocolate, despite moving cocoa butter further down the ingredients list.
The Grocer’s analysis of Assosia data shows that as recently as last month, the ingredients label for Cadbury Bournville’s original bar read: “Sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, palm oil…”
However, this has since been amended to: “Sugar, cocoa mass, palm oil, cocoa butter…” indicating a lower proportion of cocoa butter and a higher proportion of palm oil to the previous recipe.
When approached by The Grocer, however, a spokeswoman for Cadbury Bournville said: “We can assure our fans that we have made no changes to our much-loved recipe.”
Instead, the order of the ingredients list had been amended “to better align with food labelling requirements, but it is the same, delicious Cadbury Bournville that our consumers know and love”, the spokeswoman stressed.
It comes after McVitie’s removed cocoa butter from its White Chocolate Digestives in March, necessitating them to be renamed “White Digestives”.
A spokeswoman for McVitie’s blamed “a business continuity issue with our coating supplier” as the reason for reformulating. However, it followed record-breaking levels of inflation on cocoa mass and cocoa butter.
Bournville’s new look
The update to Bournville’s ingredients list coincides with a “modernised” overhaul of the brand, which has also seen the addition of Caramel and Chopped Hazelnut variants.
As a nod to the brand’s heritage, Cadbury has embossed the “B” from the original 1908 Bournville packaging on to each individual chocolate block.
The relaunch is being backed by Bournville’s first major marketing campaign since 1970, which will challenge consumers to “think differently about dark chocolate”, according to Cadbury.
The campaign was designed “to make dark chocolate more accessible, by taking a tongue-in-cheek glance at the perceived pretentiousness often associated with dark chocolate”, it said.
Running from August until October, it will include out-of-home, TV, radio, social media and shopper marketing.
“Our first campaign in over 50 years aims to cut through the pretentiousness and complexity often associated with the dark chocolate market,” said Cadbury Bournville brand manager Valerie Doeringer.
“The modernised new look of our range, alongside the introduction of our Salted Caramel and Chopped Hazelnut NPD, help us to drive excitement in the segment, and invite more consumes to discover the smooth taste of Cadbury Bournville,” Doeringer added.
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