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Minister Doris Leuthard samples chocolates in Broc

Nestle master chocolate maker at work in Broc

Vevey/Broc, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nestlé Monday 7 September opened its CHF25 million Chocolate Centre of Excellence in Broc, in the hills above the company’s home office in Vevey. A slew of dignitaries, including Switzerland’s minister for economic affairs, Doris Leuthard, and top company officials were present to underscore the unit’s importance.

The new centre is a research and production operation for Nestlé’s premium and luxury chocolate segment, but it “will influence the company’s entire chocolate range,” the company noted in its press release for the event.

Nestlé says that of its CHF9.8 billion in chocolate sales in 2008, some 70 percent came from local sales rather than the global brands for which it is well-known, which had sales of CHF1 billion.

Minister Leuthard, Nestle CEO Paul Bulcke and VP Petraea Heynike, who heads the chocolate business

The new centre is part of the company’s research and development arm, which has 28 centres around the world and some 5,000 employees. Chocolate R&D has led the company to invest heavily in replanting older cocoa plantations with new high-yield disease-resistant plants, notably in Ecuador, Venezuela, Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire.

The team at the centre includes fine cocoa bean scientists, sensory experts, chocolatiers as well as packaging designers and consumer specialists. For “artistic inspiration” Nestlé is turning to what it calls a panel of independent chocolatiers: Pierre Marcolini, Tristan Carbonatto and Roger von Rotz. The Centre is also working in partnership with external design institutions that include the California Art Center and the ECAL University of Art and Design in Lausanne.