Nestle launched a special KitKat Chocolatory Gateau Mignon exclusively at Tokyo, Japan’s KitKat Chocolatory Ginza store on the 25th July 2017, with the launch coinciding with the store’s reopening after renovations to the store – which includes a new cafe space as well as a big boost in their product range and services – saw it temporarily close.
KitKat’s Chocolatory series was devised as a key part of Nestle Japan’s face in 2014, and their Himeji plant will manufacture the existing flavours such as sublime bitter, pistachio and raspberry, and strawberry maple. A cake-style chocolate, KitKat Chocolatory will be made available in both three and six-pieces boxes.
Between July 25th and July 31st, the first few dozen customers to buy the product at the Ginza store will receive pieces of the special chocolate fondant cake, which will not be available for sale otherwise. As well as pushing the new product, Nestle are now offering KitKat Chocolatory Parfair, frozen chocolatory with dried ice, and KitKat Chocolatory Sublime Original Message, which will enable customers to personalise their chocolate bars with messages of their choosing.
Kitkat is a big player in the Japanese chocolate confectionary market, with Euromonitor data showing that Nestle’s brand accounts for 3.4% of the total market. Chocolate in Japan is growing in 2017, with sales up 5% from this time last year to a whopping JPY555 billion, which is around $5bn, or £3.78bn. It seems that boxed assortments are very popular in Japan, with it becoming one of the nation’s fastest growing areas in the chocolate confectionary region in 2017, and current value sales are rising by 6% year on year, which Euromonitor attribute to a massive demand for premium chocolate.
