Blue Riband (biscuits)
 | |
| Product type | Chocolate biscuit |
|---|---|
| Owner | Nestlé |
| Country | U.K. |
| Introduced | 1936 |
| Website | nestle.co.uk/blueriband |
Blue Riband is a chocolate biscuit currently produced by Nestlé. The bar was launched in 1936[1] by Gray Dunn, one of Scotland's major biscuit producers and a subsidiary of confectionery giant Rowntree's, as a real milk chocolate wafer – a crisp wafer biscuit covered in a very thin layer of milk chocolate. They also produced a similar, non coated, wafer called Caramel Wafer. The Gray Dunn factory also made Breakaway. The Gray Dunn factory in Glasgow continued to produce Blue Riband until 1994 when Nestlé closed it down and moved production to Newcastle.
Both products came under the Nestle banner when it bought out the Rowntrees group and Nestlé announced in April 2017 that production was to move to Poland.[2]
The current biscuit is a lot smaller than it used to be and is now packed in a sealed sleeve, whereas it used to have a cellophane wrapper with a large blue bow on it, twist closed at each end.
Gray Dunn itself did continue in business after its management team bought it from Nestle in 1997. It made its own brand biscuits for several UK supermarkets. It went into receivership in 2001.
It was first marketed primarily in the North of UK, Switzerland, Europe, and in the U.S. It was re-launched in December 2004. The modern version is not as crisp as the original, and the chocolate layer is sweeter and thicker.[citation needed] Blue Riband's primary competitor is the KitKat bar, also manufactured by Nestlé since 1988, which is a similar product and a main reason for the redesign of Blue Riband.[3]
In 2021 it was revealed that a care company with a similar name based up in Preston, Lancashire was sued by nestle for £32billion pounds for breaching their trademark. Chris Overton and Karen Beasley the deputy managers of the company said it was false accusations after they claimed it was named after a blue ribbon not a blue riband after the chocolate bar. Spokesman Chris Platt who was the former manager of Blue Ribbon Health & Well-being from when it was founded in 2017 until 2021 also claimed this was false as well and it was a misunderstanding. And it was reported as one of the worst care providers in the UK & Ireland on social media. When they paid for the licence to use the name they were given a lifetime supply of nestle products for free.
References[]
- ^ "Blue Riband - Nestlé UK". 4 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
- ^ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/04/25/nestle-axe-nearly-300-jobs-move-blue-riband-production-poland/
- ^ Blue Riband Candy at snackmemory.com Archived 2014-12-29 at the Wayback Machine
External links[]
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- 1936 establishments in the United Kingdom
- Nestlé brands
- Biscuit brands
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