In March 2018, Nestlé put the WOW into SOME chocolate. More specifically, some wow into our iconic Milkybar brand! The Milkybar Wowsomes range landed in the UK and Ireland in March this year. The world’s first ever chocolate bar containing ‘Structured Sugar’ and allowing Nestlé to reduce sugar content by 30%, whilst keeping the same great taste as other chocolate bars on the shelf.
Creating such a pioneering product was not easy, from conception to consumption many employees around Nestlé shared their expertise and helped Wowsomes become what they are today!
Our new six part series starts with ‘The Challenge’, looking at the social context in which the idea for Wowsomes was created and we speak to our health and wellness experts, including our Company Nutritionist Liz Read, about this:
‘The Innovation’ looks at how to approach such a change, looking at existing ingredients and how to reduce sugar content but keep taste, and we speak to some of the team from the Product Technology Centre in York who were involved in creating structured sugar:
Next, we look at ‘The Product’, and some of the challenges involved in creating a new product using a known ingredient that is structured differently. Louise Barrett, Head of Chocolate Research and Development explains how many trials it takes to create a brand new product:
Under the well-established Milkybar brand, what makes Wowsomes different and what makes them similar? Why was Milkybar such a perfect choice for structured sugar? Marketing Manager, Rob and Archivist and Historian, Alex help to answer just that in ‘The Brand’:
‘The Manufacture’, how do you scale up a product from a confectioner’s kitchen into a factory for mass production? From concept to creation Wowsomes was created in an impressive timescale thanks to expert collaboration across teams across Nestlé and the use of existing factories.
In the finale of the series, ‘The Launch’ talk we talk to staff at the Product Technology Centre on the day when they were interviewed on BBC One’s Breakfast. The Brand Manager and Community Manager for Milkybar speak about the excitement and reaction generated by the Milkybar Wowsomes launch around the world:
Find out more about Milkybar Wowsomes: