Celebrations ditch the Bounty in UK selection boxes – What this means for Chocolate Fans

There’s nothing like a bar of chocolate. Really, there isn’t. We all have our favourites – Milky Way, Mars, Snickers…but the Bounty?  

Bounty is a coconut-flavoured chocolate bar, easy to see in a box of Celebrations due to its bright blue wrapper and eye-catching white logo. But do I know anyone who would pick the Bounty first? No. And that could be the root of why Mars Wrigley have ditched the well-known name in its selection boxes.  

History of the Bounty Bar 

Bounty was introduced in 1951 to the open market by Mars Wrigley as a direct emulation of another bar, the Mounds bar, while also copying the American Hershey’s Almond Joy, which was introduced in 1948. Its tagline is “The Taste of Paradise” but, if I’m frank, it's never given me paradise vibes. In fact, it’s just given me “Oh God, I thought that was a Milky Way. Must spit out now” vibes. 

All of this worry over the dropping of the Bounty is because of the results of a survey on the Celebrations selection box, carried out by Mars Wrigley themselves, which found that 40% of people who filled out the survey hate the coconut-flavoured confection – but it seems that Mars Wrigley has neglected to look at the fact that 60% clearly like the Bounty, meaning the whole decision to ditch the Bounty in a trial run is ludicrous. Why are you thinking of removing a bar that 60% of people enjoy eating? It doesn’t make sense. 

The Problem May Be the Coconut Itself 

The very central ingredient of the Bounty – the coconut – may be the reason Mars Wrigley is reconsidering the bar. For starters, Bounty is no longer sold in the United States, which may suggest that Mars Wrigley intend to cut it from the UK market to save costs. But, you may ask, would this cut costs significantly? Well, world production of coconuts is concentrated in Asia and the Pacific, and with the rising cost of fuel, shipping of coconuts to Europe is now very expensive. The coconuts then have to be processed in factories to make desiccated coconut, which is the form of coconut in the bar, and then that product has to be delivered to Mars Wrigley factories where all the ingredients are put together. All these processes cost money.  

Considering the other bars for the moment, let’s look at the headliner – the Mars bar itself. Apart from the chocolate, it contains caramel and nougat, which can easily be made on-site in a factory, and processing is easier and cheaper. Snickers are caramel and peanuts, Galaxy is just chocolate, while Malteasers contain barley malt, which is easy to get in the UK, and Milky Way is made of milk and vanilla flavouring. All of these bars have ingredients in them that are easier and cheaper to get into the main UK factory than Bounty. If Mars Wrigley is keen to ditch a bar, Bounty is ripe for the picking. 

But is it the right bar to ditch? 

That is really a question for chocolate lovers. The survey carried out by Mars Wrigley showed that 18% said the Bounty was their favourite bar in the selection. That’s not a lot. If we were deciding based on this, the Bounty may not survive. The only way to know for certain which bar needs to go based on appeal is by asking “What is your least favourite bar in the Celebrations selection box?” Otherwise, Mars Wrigley’s decision to drop the Bounty in a trial in the UK looks more like a case of persuasion – hoping to persuade the masses that the Bounty bar, which is dearer to make than the other bars in the selection, should go to save costs. If Mars Wrigley wants to keep selling Celebrations, they need to look at the 60% who enjoy eating the Bounty and not the 40% of which I would be a member had I answered that survey.  

Celebrations is a selection box my family and I have purchased every year. We prefer truffles and McVities selection boxes, but we always buy Celebrations and Mars Wrigley’s main rivals, the Cadbury selection boxes of Roses, Milk Tray, and Nestle’s Black Magic. The growing popularity of Lindt’s chocolate selections, which have richer chocolate and are much the same price, also threatens sales of Celebrations. The competition between selection boxes is a war at Christmas – but would ditching the Bounty make Celebrations more attractive? Knowing what we know from the survey, it would probably make them less popular, and drive purchasers towards Cadbury, Nestle and Lindt.   

What makes Celebrations so successful is the wide choice in the selection – which, in my view, is the key to a great selection box. You need a caramel, you need a plain one, an exotic one, a white chocolate one, a dark/rich one etc. Celebrations have all of them. But not many other selection boxes boast Coconut as a flavour. I think this has given Celebrations an edge when it comes to the selection box war because it attracts coconut lovers to the box, who also have friends and relatives who enjoy the other bars. I have never seen Cadbury produce a widely successful coconut bar – I’ve never seen one in my local shop (but they did and do make several). Nestle’s main competitor, the Lion coconut bar, is probably the biggest threat to the Bounty, yet I know more people who like Bounty and have never eaten a Lion coconut bar. And even Lindt has a dark chocolate bar flavoured with coconut. 

So, why the sudden anti-coconut sentiment? As far as I’m concerned, it has more to do with money than what people really think. 40% not liking a bar is damning, but in ignoring the 60% majority who like the bar, I believe Mars is making a grave error in ditching the Bounty. Yes, it is a trial run – you can still get Bounty in an Irish Celebrations box, but for how much longer? If the cost of production keeps rising (which, with the way things are going, probably will) we could lose it forever. With the current selection box market, and a gap in that coconut confection market, Mars Wrigley may lose profits if they give up the Bounty altogether. 

And for all chocolate lovers, we will have to wait and see if Mars Wrigley decides to save money rather than satisfy their coconut-chocolate-loving customers.