KitKat’s rise continues, as the flagship British brand celebrates 90th birthday

Rising to become a flagship confectionery brand for Nestlé, KitKat is marking its landmark 90th birthday celebrations for its ongoing manufacturing and product development in York, UK, reports Neill Barston.

As Confectionery Production has previously reported, the classic two-fingered chocolate wafer bar has routinely been highlighted among the Swiss-headquartered company’s strongest performing products within its broad portfolio.

Having started out life in 1935, developed by Rowntree’s, the bar has continued to be a beloved British favourite with consumers, and as our recent report showed, has reached a figure of around five billion bars being sold on an annual basis in more than 85 countries, including under licence in the US.

Nestle’s KitKat production line in York, Yorkshire, UK, is being celebrated in a new campaign. Pic: Neill Barston

You can see our exclusive video report on the York factory below, which includes its extensive research and development facilities, the business has moved to heighten its support for key communities in the cocoa supply chain in evolving its income accelerator scheme based around enhancing payment of agricultural communities.

As previously reported, this summer, the company launched a key campaign celebrating British Manufacturing under the catchline of “Good for Britain, Good for the Future,” placing a spotlight on workers across the food and drink sector. This has been led by two new distinctive videos that focus on its KitKat production, as well as Nescafe coffee.

It aimed to tell some of the stories of unsung production heroes who have kept its manufacturing halls ship-shape down the decades, as well as focusing on farming families that have offered long service to their communities. 

Classic heritage
Significantly, the brand’s trusty tagline, “Have a break, have a KitKat”  has seen a host of adverts and campaigns down the decades, and as the company asserted, has  become the international symbol of a meaningful break from the stresses of daily life.

During its history it has moved to reinvent itself to cater to new consumption moments and to appeal to the local tastes and cultural preferences of many regions around the world.

Originally created as a four-finger chocolate-covered wafer bar, KitKat today, is offered in over 300 diverse flavours around the world, ranging from hazelnut or salted caramel here in the UK to more exotic fare such as wasabi or matcha in other markets.

Perhaps one of the most notable of these has been the Japanese confectionery industry, which has particularly embraced the brand with its chocolatory stores, where shoppers could access a host of special edition flavours not found in retail stores, reflecting the region’s love of food novelties.  

As Nestlé noted, York has long held associations with the confectionery, and chocolate sector in particular. It is still hailed as the UK’s capital of chocolate, having played host to some extremely famous names down the generations, including Terry’s Chocolate’s famed Chocolate Orange, which is no longer in Yorkshire, (and is presently in the process of being acquired by Ferrara),  and of course Rowntree’s – responsible for Smarties, Aero, Quality Street, After Eight and Rolos.

Other key names from the city included the Craven’s brand, renowned for its hard boiled sweets, with its factory previously in the Coppergate area, and continued production into the 1970s.

Today, the city plays home to a growing nucleus of independent confectionery businesses, including York Coca House, which has previously played a key role in our World Confectionery Conference, and Choc Affair, producing high quality confectionery series.

The brand history
For its part, KitKat’s name originates from  an eighteenth-century pastry cook called Christopher Catling, or Kit Cat as he was more commonly known.
Some 90 years later, Nestlé York makes up to four million KitKat bars every day, all designed, developed and delivered here by its team of chocolate experts.

Notably, Giles Naish, the great-great-grandson of confectionery pioneer, Joseph Rowntree, and Confectionery Innovation Project Lead in York today, proudly showcases the generational legacy and values that underpin Nestlé’s presence in York in Nestlé’s recent Good for Britian, Good for the Future campaign.

Significantly, the brand has undergone evolutions during its history, and has also collaborated with other popular Nestlé brands, such as Nescafé, to create a Nescafé Mocha Flavour. It has also introduced innovative and appealing finishes, for example in the KitKat Chunky Funky, an eye-catching marbled bar to engage and excite younger consumers.

Giles Naish commented: “We’re constantly innovating and coming up with new ideas, so when you see a new product in a shop somewhere, you can think that actually the idea will have been developed here in our kitchens and factory.

“Next time you have a break and have a KitKat, you’re enjoying 90 years of history that started here in York and continues as one of Britain’s success stories.”

Scott Coles, Managing Director for Nestlé Confectionery in the UK and Ireland, comments:

“To think KitKat started here in York 90 years ago and has grown into a multi-billion-pound, global brand is something we’re all incredibly proud of.

“York is still home to our confectionery business and factory where we employ more than 2,000 people and make millions of KitKats every single day.

“KitKat is a true British success story and, while 90 years is an impressive milestone, I’m sure KitKat will be helping the people of Britain have a break for many decades to come.

As the company noted, it Nestlé continues to invest in its biggest and most profitable brands, like KitKat, because of the growth opportunities that such series offers.

Most recently, the company launched KitKat blocks in Europe, where tablets have grown by over CHF 1.4 billion in sales over the past two years and are now valued at CHF 7.5 billion. With tablets now the second most popular chocolate format in Europe, KitKat blocks are designed to capture the growing demand for indulgent and shareable chocolate experiences, with the brands sales’ continuing to rise around the world.