ITC Steps into Premium Chocolate Making With Fabelle, To Be Sold At Boutique Stores Only

Kolkata: Indian super-brand ITC is planning to introduce luxury chocolate segment in collaboration with supreme chocolate brand Fabelle. ITC said that the premium chocolates will be sold only at their luxury hotel-boutique stores located across the country. A senior management report from the ITC had asserted that they ‘has forayed into’ the super-premium chocolate segment with Fabelle. The team also said they are now involved in the final selection of Fabelle chocolates to be sold from stores.

Reports are that in the early decades, ITC had rejected multiple chocolate products from the company. The corporate strategy of ‘enter any category from the top-end and move down’ forced Kolkata-grown ITC to compete against Mondelez and Swiss chocolate-maker Lindt this late.

“It has been ITC's strategy to go top-down in the FMCG business. It had first launched premium packaged ready-to-eat meals under Kitchens of India when it first forayed into the food business. Similarly, it had a line-up of super-premium body sprays and perfumes before foraying into the popular segment with Engage deodorants. The investment in building up a chocolate product line and back-end is likely to be utilized to expand the category,” a report from a senior market analyst has revealed.

According to sources, ITC will start producing chocolate from their Bangalore unit. The company will sell each piece at Rs. 1000 on average. The company had only yesterday has announced that they will stop producing cigarettes following a court order that asked to incorporate larger pictorial representations on cigarette packets to alert the customers. ITC’s further expansion in the premium chocolate segment is therefore is a step to ‘overcome its cigarette sales losses.