Toblerone vs. Poundland: A Food Fight With Peaks and Troughs
- 7 years ago
Toblerone vs. Poundland: A Food Fight With Peaks and Troughs
If, as some contend, Toblerone was modeled on the soaring pyramid of a mountain — the Matterhorn on the Italian-Swiss border, which is about 14,690 feet high — Poundland’s bar was
said to have been inspired by two less vertiginous hills in the English county of Shropshire near the border with Wales — the Ercall, at 460 feet, and the Wrekin, at 1,335 feet.
What Poundland perhaps did not anticipate was the battle of the brands
that kept its new offering off the shelves while the owners of Toblerone, the giant American conglomerate Mondelez International, challenged the British company’s right to make a candy bar that looked so similar.
Once the initial 500,000 bars have been sold, Poundland said in a news release, it will "revise the shape" so
that the bar "better represents the outline of the Wrekin and Ercall hills."
And hence its name: Twin Peaks, with what Poundland called "a distinctive British flavor compared
to Toblerone’s Swiss chocolate nougat." Please verify you’re not a robot by clicking the box.
When the makers of the distinctive Swiss confection Toblerone reconfigured their triangular treat last year to slim down its hallmark summits
and widen the valleys between them, a potential rival — Britain’s Poundland discount chain — saw a niche in the market.
But while the classic Toblerone bars had become lighter in weight in the reconfiguring — though their price
remained the same — Poundland’s bar would be chunkier and cheaper, at one pound, or about $1.35, each.
If, as some contend, Toblerone was modeled on the soaring pyramid of a mountain — the Matterhorn on the Italian-Swiss border, which is about 14,690 feet high — Poundland’s bar was
said to have been inspired by two less vertiginous hills in the English county of Shropshire near the border with Wales — the Ercall, at 460 feet, and the Wrekin, at 1,335 feet.
What Poundland perhaps did not anticipate was the battle of the brands
that kept its new offering off the shelves while the owners of Toblerone, the giant American conglomerate Mondelez International, challenged the British company’s right to make a candy bar that looked so similar.
Once the initial 500,000 bars have been sold, Poundland said in a news release, it will "revise the shape" so
that the bar "better represents the outline of the Wrekin and Ercall hills."
And hence its name: Twin Peaks, with what Poundland called "a distinctive British flavor compared
to Toblerone’s Swiss chocolate nougat." Please verify you’re not a robot by clicking the box.
When the makers of the distinctive Swiss confection Toblerone reconfigured their triangular treat last year to slim down its hallmark summits
and widen the valleys between them, a potential rival — Britain’s Poundland discount chain — saw a niche in the market.
But while the classic Toblerone bars had become lighter in weight in the reconfiguring — though their price
remained the same — Poundland’s bar would be chunkier and cheaper, at one pound, or about $1.35, each.