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Nestlé celebrates York, a city packed with history

Alex Hutchinson

York, a city rich with history, especially when it comes to chocolate, has been featured as part of a new video series profiling the UK communities where Nestlé operates.

Presented by expert historian, Alex Hutchinson, the video gives a tour of York and its landmarks before moving onto its chocolate heritage and the role Nestlé plays as a proud part of the community in 2018.

Some of the world’s most famous confectionery families and brands emerged from York, including Rowntree’s and its famous brands like KitKat, which have become world-renowned.

Today the site is home to Nestlé’s UK confectionery business, a number of head office functions and to Nestlé’s global R&D centre for confectionery.

There are nearly 2,000 people working at Nestlé’s York site, which is the largest private employer in the city.

In addition, 170 people work on the science of making great sweets in York in the Product Technology Centre, the leading global Research and Development centre for Nestlé confectionery.

KitKat, one of the biggest confectionery brands in the world, has been made on the same site in York since 1935, which is now one of the largest confectionery factories in the UK. The site makes more than four million KitKat bars a day - that is more than one billion KitKat products every year!

But it’s not all about KitKat, Nestlé’s York site makes Yorkie, the chocolate bar that was named after the city, Polo, Milkybar, Aero as well as chocolate for its two other British confectionery factories.

Alex Hutchinson said:

“I have lived in York for nearly two decades and, around every corner, there is something more to learn about the history of the city, our country and culture. My expertise is in chocolate and sweets and it is staggering the amount of talent, quality and innovation that has come from this community over many, many years and right up to the present day.”

“It was great fun to take a tour of our beautiful city and show people around a community that we can all be very proud of.”



Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage company, is shining a light on its UK communities where it has a presence – see all the films in the ‘Nestlé Communities’ series.