Will the Cadbury’s Creme Egg cafe provide an eggcelent rate of return?
Chocolate behemoth Cadbury had a rocky start to the year. Last week we heard that the brand has made a £10m loss on sales of its Easter lines, with £6m of that coming from customers losing their appetite for Cadbury Creme Eggs.
Patriotic chocaholics were up in arms when they discovered last year that American parent company Mondelez had decided to change the recipe for the eggs, replacing the Dairy Milk shell with a cheaper substitute.
So how could the global food giant win us back, and reignite Britain’s love affair with the Creme Egg?
Open a cafe that sells them, of course. Frying in the face of adversity (sorry), a three storey “Creme Egg Cafe” will launch in Soho this Friday, with chefs stuffing the sweets into a range of dishes.
Menu items in the cafe – for diners who eat in – are all priced at £4. With a five-pack of the sugary treats available at an RRP of £2.85, maybe the cafe is a cunning attempt to boost margins.
The chefs certainly know how to cut catering costs. “Creme Egg toasties”, essentially a Creme Egg shoved between two slices of bread, will be priced at £2 a pop and is available as a takeaway option. Perfect for those who like to go to work on an egg.
Dishes for those eating in include tray bakes, “egg and soldiers” and “strawberries and creme (egg)”. Sweet.