Nestle Ditches Reduced-Sugar Chocolate Bars on Weak Demand

(Bloomberg) -- Nestle SA has stopped selling Milkybar Wowsomes chocolates that used a new sugar-reduction technology amid weak demand.

Sales of the chocolate bars, which were sold in the U.K., were “underwhelming” as they didn’t taste as creamy as full-sugar chocolate, Chief Technology Officer Stefan Palzer said at a media event in Vevey, Switzerland, ahead of the company’s full-year results Thursday.

Milkybar Wowsomes were the first product to apply a technology Nestle unveiled in 2016 that creates a more porous sugar structure, leading to a smaller amount producing the same sweetness. The company had likened the process to hollowing out sugar crystals.

Some analysts had expected the discovery to give Nestle a competitive edge as food companies around the world try to keep up with consumers’ demand for healthier fare. The products were pulled in mid-2019, according to a spokeswoman.

Nestle is now working on the next generation of sugar-reduction techniques that will be introduced this year and can be implemented in a wider range of categories, including drinks. The hollow sugar was mainly for use in chocolate.

“We took these learnings and we have now something much better performing,” Palzer said, adding the new methods will also cut sugar by as much as 30% with a natural approach. He declined to provide more details.

“We fail forward,” said Patrice Bula, head of Nestle’s strategic business units. “You take it and launch a better product. And if we fail again, we try again.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Corinne Gretler in Zurich at cgretler1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, Lisa Wolfson, Jonathan Roeder

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