Ritzbury Chocolates to unveil new range

Ritzbury Chocolates Ltd will launch a range of premium quality products within the first six months of this year, said CBL's Group Director and Head of Sales and Marketing, Nandana Wickramage.

He said that already the company has invested Rs. 500 million on machinery which has been imported from Germany. The trials of the new products have been completed and tested with consumers as well. He said that the quality and the taste of the products to be launched are far superior to any international brand in the market and therefore he was confident that these new products will be able to compete with any international brand and emerge winners.

At present Ritzbury products are exported to 20 countries under the corporate brand name CBL Munchee and plans are under-way to export to all countries in the SAARC region as well as Europe after the launch of the new products.

Nandana Wickramage

The large portfolio of products in Ritzbury cuts across all social segments due to the superior taste and affordability.

He said that when they launched Ritzbury in 1990s the chocolate industry was dominated by two players while there were imported brands as well. But the only product available in the market was Chocolate slabs. We at Ritzbury wanted to innovate a product which was superior in quality and taste and also affordable.

Therefore, Ritzbury launched chocolate coated biscuits and wafers to the local market. It was available internationally but not locally.

Since the lifestyles of people were also changing they needed to have something on the move and since the pack sizes were small and affordable it was a success. Consumer interest in quality chocolate and chocolate related confectionary has risen with some of the brands having overtaken global brands in terms of sales volumes and becoming market leaders said Wickramage.

He said pioneering brands for children, has been accepted enthusiastically.

Wickramage said that these innovations by Ritzbury created a new segment in the chocolate market and helped to block the imported products such as chocolate balls and beans which were freely available until then.

At the dawn of the new millennium we as a company decided to get aggressive to be a major player in the market. Since then there has been no turning back but have come forward and made the market bigger.