Swiss chocolate brand Laderach has embarked on a global market expansion, eyeing a sweet spot in China as it develops new products catering specifically for Chinese tastes.
According to CEO Johannes Laderach, “I’m very happy and proud of my Chinese team for the 15 stores they’ve already built in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. We see potential for further stores and also want to keep innovating for China.”
With the demise of COVID-19 restrictions, there is a rapid increase in outdoor activities in China, leading to higher traffic at retail spaces, which indirectly also boosted consumers’ purchasing appetite for candies and chocolates.
Kantar Worldpanel highlighted that “Among all snacks, candy is one of the fastest-recovering subcategories. A major reason behind the sales recovery of candy is that consumers are getting back to outdoor consumption scenarios this year.”
Sales of chocolates in China have seen a robust recovery. On a typical afternoon at a Laderach store, there is a constant customer traffic buying its Swiss-branded fresh chocolates, priced from Rmb 100 (US$14.06) for 100g, flown directly from Switzerland.
Apart from China, Laderach also has presence in Singapore and South Korea, and has highlighted its interest to penetrate into other Southeast Asian markets.
