The great debate of the Italian chocolate job

One of the biggest unexpected breaking stories of the past week has come courtesy of Nestlé, with the heist of 413,000 KitKat bars stolen en route to Poland from its factory in Italy.

Intriguingly, one of the interesting reactions to the news was ‘this is a genius piece of marketing’ with some moving to declare that this was very much in the realms of being an April fools skit. 

But is that likely to be the case in actuality? Well, from the company’s perspective, it was very much put out there like a genuine news story, and was unusual enough to warrant gaining news coverage, right across major channels across Europe, as well as making the pages of the BBC, Guardian, and even CNN in the US devoting online space to what could be dubbed “The Italian Chocolate job.”

Well, according to the company, it had fielded many media enquiries about the mysterious loss of its lorry, and it was being considered as a real story – if it was intended as an April fool, it would likely have emerged the day or two at most before April, but with Easter falling this weekend as well, some have claimed the story represented a great plug for it F1 mini KitKats – which just happen to be the series that is said to have been stolen.

While there may well be weightier matters to consider in the world with war continuing in Iran, Ukraine, and economies facing their respective challenges around the world after years of a cost of living crisis, its strange how people are most often drawn to unexpected tales that are a break from the seemingly relentless cycle of negative news that is sadly making international headlines.

While it seems more likely than not that this theft is a genuine incident, the relaxed-seeming response from the company in its statement did seem somewhat out of kilter with an incident in which products worth hundreds of thousands of pounds being stolen, was the core matter at hand.

So only time will tell if the elusive Italian consignment of KitKats will ever see the light of day, but its a tale that you really do want to hear the end of, for its rarity, and also the genuine fact that retail theft, including of confectionery, is becoming an alarming factor in many countries across Europe and far further afield.

Neill Barston, editor, Confectionery Production magazine

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