Lion is a brand of chocolate bar currently owned and manufactured by Nestlé. The brand was originally introduced by British company Rowntree's in 1976 and also produces Lion Cereal.

History

Lion was first launched by Yorkshire confectionery company Rowntree's in Fawdon, Newcastle in 1976. The production of Lion bars was moved to a factory in Dijon, France when it was bought by Swiss company Nestlé in 1988.

2004–2007

In 2004, Nestlé invested £6.7 million in the relaunching of the chocolate bar across Europe in countries such as the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The campaign was suited to the

target market A target market, also known as serviceable obtainable market (SOM), is a group of customers within a business's serviceable available market at which a business aims its marketing efforts and resources. A target market is a subset of the total ma ...

of teenage boys which differed from Lion bar's traditional target market of 18 to 34-year-old males. As part of the campaign Nestlé and TV channel Animal Planet launched a co-branded in-store promotion in 2000 stores in the United Kingdom. The promotion included sampling designed to reach more than one million customers, as well as a TV campaign. The sampling team gave away more than 650,000 Lion bars at ten shopping centres and 20 town centre locations. Nestle brand manager David Hardwick said that following Nestle research the chocolate bar was made lighter and milkier and the caramel was made softer. The size of the wafer was also reduced and more cream and crispy bits were added. Hardwick stated that the only thing that had not changed was the recipe for the wafer. Nestlé reduced the amount of

transfat Trans fat, also called trans-unsaturated fatty acids, or trans fatty acids, is a type of unsaturated fat that naturally occurs in small amounts in meat and milk fat. It became widely produced as an unintentional byproduct in the industrial pr ...

in Lion bars to meet a growing consumer trend for smaller portions and healthier eating but sales fell by 18% between 2004 and 2005. In addition, total volumes declined from 30,000 tonnes to 18,000 tonnes between 2002 and 2007 and by around 50% over the span of 10 years. In 2007, Nestlé sold its factory in Dijon to Barry Callebaut with Nestlé saying it will outsource the production to the chocolate producer who can use the existing capacity and equipment to manufacture some of its own products.

2017–present

On 20 July 2017, a lorry containing twenty-five tons of Lion bars burst into flames on the A2 road, near the junction for the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent. The fire caused traffic disruption and three of the four London-bound lanes were closed. The

Kent Fire and Rescue Service Kent Fire and Rescue Service is the statutory fire and rescue service for the administrative county of Kent and the unitary authority area of Medway, covering a geographical area south of London, to the coast and including major shipping route ...

said the cause of the blaze was not known and Nestlé said that the driver of the lorry was not injured. A peanut version of Lion, branded as the "Wild Peanut Lion Bar", was introduced in October 2021. It was available exclusively in B&M for the remainder of 2021 before launching in other retailers in 2022.

Lion Cereal

Nestlé produce a spin-off

breakfast cereal Cereal, formally termed breakfast cereal (and further categorized as cold cereal or warm cereal), is a traditional breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in ...

called "Lion Cereal" which is described as “the King of Cereals” and contains chocolate,

caramel Caramel ( or ) is an orange-brown confectionery product made by heating a range of sugars. It can be used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, or as a topping for ice cream and custard. The process of caramelizatio ...

and whole grain to make it taste like the Lion chocolate bar. In a 2004 analysis by the Consumers' Association, researchers named it the worst and most unhealthy cereal in the survey. It was found that the cereal contained 35.9 grams of sugar per 100 grams which was 18 times the recommended level of sugar with researchers saying that Nestle Lion Cereal contained as much sugar as the chocolate bar of the same name. It was also found that the cereal contained four times as much fat than recommended at 13.7 grams as well as 0.75g salt. In 2016, researchers from the World Action on Salt and Health reported that Nestle's Lion cereal contained over two teaspoons of sugar per serving at 29 grams of sugar per 100 grams which in the survey placed the cereal only behind Frosties, Coco Pops and

Crunchy Nut Cornflakes Crunchy Nut (previously known as "Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes" in the UK, and "Nut & Honey Crunch"/"Honey & Nut Corn Flakes" in the US) is a breakfast cereal made by Kellogg's with flakes of corn, honey, three types of sugar, and chopped peanuts. T ...

in terms of sugar. In January 2020, Nestlé developed a perfume based on the breakfast cereal called Eau de Lion which was produced in a limited edition run of 300 bottles in France. In March 2021, Lion Cereal and Mother announced their advertising campaign called "King of the Jingle" which aimed to create a jingle for the brand. Participants had from 23 August 2021 until 2 October 2021 to enter and the eleven winners were selected by

Hatik Clément Daniel Maxime Penhoat (, ; born November 26, 1992 in Chevreuse), better known by his stage name Hatik, is a French rapper and actor from Guyancourt, Yvelines. He was known by his musical project ''Chaise pliante'' starting 2018. His bigg ...

Bilal Hassani Bilal Hassani ( ar, بلال حسني, translit=Bilāl Ḥasnī; born 9 September 1999) is a French singer-songwriter and YouTuber. He represented in the in Israel with the song " Roi" after scoring 200 points in the final of ''Destination Eu ...

, Ogee and Lou.

References

External links