New KitKat to be made in Bulgaria (From York Press)

New KitKat to be made in Bulgaria

2:14pm Monday 10th March 2008 in News By Press reporter

NESTLÉ has announced a new low calorie edition of the KitKat - and has said it will be made at its factory in Bulgaria rather than in York.

The new 165-calorie bar, called Senses, will hit the shops in April. It is aimed at women, with pop group Girls Aloud expected to front the advertising campaign.

The new low calorie KitKat will have praline-filled fingers and is expected to cost 45p.

A spokeswoman for Nestlé said decisions on where new products were manufactured were made in light of factory capacity and specialisation.

"The York factory is a massive plant making normal KitKats, with capacity to do that," she said. "With a new product, management looks at capacity and specialisation in a type of product."

Until Nestlé took over Rowntree almost 20 years ago, KitKats were made solely at the York site. They are now also produced at a number of other sites across the world.

The Nestlé spokeswoman confirmed Girls Aloud had been approached to star in an ad campaign for the new product.

The deal is said to be worth nearly £10 million, with band members Cheryl Cole, 24, Nadine Coyle, 22, Sarah Harding, 26, Nicola Roberts, 22 and Kimberly Walsh, 26, each receiving £500,000 for starring in TV adverts and poster and newspaper ads, as well as having their latest tour sponsored by the chocolate bar.

Last week, we reported how Poundland, in Low Petergate, was selling Polo mints that had been shipped halfway round the world.

Rather than selling home-produced Polos from the Nestlé Rowntree plant in Wigginton Road, the discount store was instead stocking packets produced at Nestlé's Indonesian factory - 7,300 miles away.

Environmentalists condemned the move.