Lion is a brand of

chocolate bar A chocolate bar (Commonwealth English) or candy bar (some dialects of American English) is a confection containing chocolate, which may also contain layerings or mixtures that include nuts, fruit, caramel, nougat, and wafers. A flat, easily brea ...

currently owned and manufactured by

Nestlé Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...

. The brand was originally introduced by British company

Rowntree's Rowntree's is a British confectionery brand and former business based in York, England. Rowntree developed the Kit Kat (introduced in 1935), Aero (introduced in 1935), Fruit Pastilles (introduced in 1881), Smarties (introduced in 1937) brands, ...

in 1976 and also produces Lion Cereal.

History

Lion was first launched by Yorkshire confectionery company

Fawdon Fawdon is an electoral ward of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is also close to the A1 western bypass. The population of the ward is 10,890, reducing to 10,090 at the 2011 Census, 5.7% of the total population of Newcastle upon Tyne. Car ownership in ...

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

in 1976. The production of Lion bars was moved to a factory in

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, France when it was bought by Swiss company

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 Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

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 A wafer is a crisp, often sweet, very thin, flat, light and dry biscuit, often used to decorate ice cream, and also used as a garnish on some sweet dishes. Wafers can also be made into cookies with cream flavoring sandwiched between them. They ...

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 in Lion bars to meet a growing consumer

trend A fad or trend is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse (psychology), impulse for a short period. Fads are objects or behavior ...

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 Barry Callebaut is a Belgian-Swiss cocoa processor and chocolate manufacturer, with an average annual production of 2.3 million tonnes of cocoa & chocolate (fiscal year 2021/2022). It was created in 1996 through the merging of the Belgian ...

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 Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. 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 The peanut (''Arachis hypogaea''), also known as the groundnut, goober (US), pindar (US) or monkey nut (UK), is a legume crop grown mainly for its edible Seed, seeds. It is widely grown in the tropics and subtropics, important to both small ...

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 A whole grain is a grain of any cereal and pseudocereal that contains the endosperm, germ, and bran, in contrast to refined grains, which retain only the endosperm. As part of a general healthy diet, consumption of whole grains is associated w ...

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 Cocoa Krispies (also known as Choco Krispis, Choco Krispies, Coco Pops, Choco Pops depending on region) is a breakfast cereal produced by Kellogg's, coming both as a boxed cereal and as a snack bar with a 'dried milk' covered bottom. It is a c ...

and Crunchy Nut Cornflakes 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 ] A mother is the female parent of a child. A woman may be considered a mother by virtue of having given childbirth, birth, by raising a child who may or may not be her biological offspring, or by supplying her ovum for fertilisation in the cas ...

announced their

advertising campaign An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...

called "King of the Jingle" which aimed to create a

jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meaning that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually t ...

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 big ...

, Bilal Hassani, Ogee and Lou.

References

External links