Belgian premium chocolate enters Turkish supermarkets after $100M investment

Godiva, the 91-year-old Belgian chocolate brand, enters Turkish and North American supermarkets and seeks to expand its share in the premium chocolate sector by also entering Chinese, British and Saudi supermarkets.

Turkey's biggest chocolate and biscuit company Yıldız Holding acquired Belgian Godiva in 2008 with an $850-million investment. The sales volume of Godiva was around $500 million in 2008 and reached $1 billion in 2016. To serve Turkish supermarkets, the company has now made a new investment worth $100 million, for a 7,000-ton capacity, to its production facilities in Topkapı and Silivri, located on the European side of Istanbul.

Yıldız Holding united its three brands under its global company Pladis in 2016. Ülker, Turkey's 73-year-old brand, has become the world's third-largest biscuit producer, after uniting with U.K.-based United Biscuits, which began in 1948 following the merger of Carr's - founded in 1830 - McVitie Price and MacFarlane Lang. Adding Godiva to its stable, Pladis has been named among the world's 10 largest chocolate and confectionery companies, ranking seventh on Candy Industry's 2017 list "Global Top 100."

Godiva is expected to change the premium chocolate segment in the market, according to Pladis's Turkey chair Mete Buyurgan. Godiva has served through its own cafes for years and could also be found in duty-free stores. It now hopes to become a more accessible chocolate brand, seeking to generate 7 percent of Pladis's profits in the next five years. The premium chocolate brand, which had 400 cafes worldwide in 2008, increased this number to 750 in 2016.

Godiva now enters 8,000 supermarkets in Turkey, with three different products to appear on shelves: The Dark Ganache Heart, Belgian Lion and Open Oyster. Three different sizes will be offered, priced at TL 2.5, TL 7 and TL 15, respectively.