Nestle

From bean to bar – the production process

Summary

Concepts:

Production, chocolate, cocoa, beans, Nestlé, manufacturing, chain, market, consumers, raw materials, economy, supply chain, industry, resources.

Summary:

Amazingly, UK consumers have a choice of over 5,000 chocolate lines available from 150,000 outlets.

Because it is so widely and readily available, we tend to take chocolate for granted, and few of us probably ever consider what is involved in producing it.

We don't know who first discovered that cocoa beans could be turned into a drink, but we do know that by 600AD the Mayan people living in what is now Mexico were growing cocoa in the jungles of Yucatan.

In the mid-19th century an English cocoa manufacturer, Joseph Storrs Fry, tried mixing cocoa butter with sugar and cocoa paste and invented the world's first solid blocks of chocolate.

All over the world you will find prominent brands first developed in the UK e.g. Smarties, Dairy Milk, Aero and of course Kit Kat (the UK's Number 1 selling confectionery brand since 1985).

Boxed chocolates such as Quality Street make up 15% of the confectionery market.

Blocks and bars like Kit Kat and Yorkie account for 65% and bitesize chocolates e.g. Smarties and Rolo make up 10%

Chocolate manufacture provides steady employment and job security for tens of thousands of employees in manufacturing locations like York and Birmingham.

The industry also generates jobs in marketing, administration, transport and storage.

Chocolate sales are an important source of income for many retailers.

Besides the cocoa beans themselves, raw materials for the chocolate industry include sugar, milk and wrapping/packaging materials e.g. paper, foil and card.

As a major buyer Nestlé seeks to be as closely involved in the supply chain as possible, to ensure quality and fairness.