By Admin 
Let us tell you that recently a truck loaded with 12 tons of Kitkat chocolates left a factory in Central Italy, which was to go to Poland. It also included chocolates from the company’s new ‘Formula One (F1)’ range. The truck filled with this precious consignment of chocolates suddenly disappeared midway.
Nestle told AFP that a truck carrying 413,793 units of our new chocolate range has been stolen during transport in Europe. Nestle took a dig at its punch line or slogan ‘Have a break’ and said that the thieves took this seriously and went on a ‘break’ with more than 12 tonnes of our chocolates. The company also humorously praised the thieves’ ‘excellent taste’. The truck and all its contents are still missing and the matter is being investigated in collaboration with local authorities and supply partners.
Each packet of stolen chocolates has a unique batch code. Due to this, there is a danger of being scanned and tracked if they are sold illegally in the market. Due to this large-scale theft of chocolate, the company has also assured that there will be no impact on the supply.
Why did thieves steal chocolate?
- Selling easily (Liquidity)- Chocolate and confectionery are much easier to sell on the “black market” or small local grocery stores than electronics or luxury goods. There is no serial number on these which can be tracked.
- high demand- There is always a demand for brands like KitKat in Italy. The price of 12 tonnes of chocolate would be thousands of Euros, making it a hugely profitable deal.
- Gray Market and Small Retailers- Thieves often do not sell these chocolates in big supermarkets because of the paperwork required there. Instead of these small
Target grocery stores or shops. They lure shopkeepers with huge discounts (like 40-50 percent less than the market price). Shopkeepers also increase their profits by purchasing goods ‘without bill’. - Re-packaging game- If the goods are marked with a specific shipment or lot number, allowing police to identify them, criminals open the larger boxes and turn them into smaller unmarked packages. Many times they erase the expiry date or batch number and apply new stickers, making it impossible to trace whether the goods belong to the same stolen truck.
- Street vendors and weekly markets- Open-air markets are held in Italy and many parts of Europe. Here transactions take place in cash. Thieves sell these chocolates to street vendors or fairs, where customers are interested in getting cheap goods. They have nothing to do with its origin.
- Digital Black Market- Nowadays thieves use encrypted platforms like Telegram or dark web. They put advertisements for ‘wholesale deals’ there. Payment is often taken in cryptocurrency so that money transactions cannot be tracked.