Hotel launched

Xing, the Mars China Chocolate marketing director, said the company had recognized the increasing demand among Chinese consumers for high-end chocolate as a trend in recent years.

Last year, it set up its first artisan store in Beijing's upmarket Guomao area, selling innovative handmade chocolates and gift boxes. It also launched a new pop-up, chocolate-themed hotel called Dove in Shanghai as part of a campaign to attract consumers.

The company said the hotel was designed around Dove's marketing slogan of "Pleasure makes you extraordinary", and offers guests the chance to craft chocolate products and taste desserts prepared by a Michelin-level chef.

Artisan chocolates are made from high-class ingredients. With growing concern for health and food safety, consumers are becoming more careful about chocolates' ingredients, and imported products are trusted as they contain more cocoa or milk.

Chinese do-it-yourself chocolate stores have emerged to become a trend in first-tier cities to meet consumers' requirements for healthier snacks.

Mei Zi, who opened the Cooffa Chocolate DIY store in Beijing in 2010, has just witnessed her business' busiest period of the year.

Every Spring Festival and Western Valentines' Day, her store is packed with people wanting to buy chocolates for their loved ones, and in recent years, making their own chocolates has become increasingly popular.

"More and more people like to make their own chocolates because they can choose the sugar and fat content according to their taste. And what's more important, they believe a DIY chocolate can represent more-genuine emotions. Many parents bring their children here, and by making chocolate together, they bond with each other and learn how to care for each other in the family," Mei said.

She thinks the driving force for her booming DIY chocolate business is due to the Chinese market becoming sufficiently mature.

Chocolate sales in China have more than doubled in recent decades, and are set to be the country's fastest-growing form of confectionery.

In a typical supermarket in Beijing, chocoholics can easily find more than 70 brands from all over the world, and according to market research company Ebrun, the domestic market is expected to grow in value to 40 billion yuan by next year.

According to the Association of Chinese Chocolate Manufacturers, consumers eat 70 grams of chocolate per capita every year. This figure is dwarfed by 2 kilograms in neighboring Japan and South Korea. In Europe, the average consumption of chocolate is 7 kg per person per year.

In China, which has a population of about 1.4 billion, the chocolate market is worth 35 billion yuan, offering huge potential.

More and more brands, including Milka from Germany, Meiji from Japan, and Maltesers from Australia, are still trying to tap the enormous potential in China.

Both domestic and foreign manufacturers have continued to research and develop new products geared toward Chinese tastes, such as chocolates filled with fruit, soft candy, star anise or milk flavoring. They have also experimented with replacing European-style liquor-filled chocolates with the Chinese spirit baijiu, or with green tea.

Ferrero's De Felip said, "China represents a very attractive market today and for the future, because the consumer is particularly sophisticated and has evolved."

He added that the Chinese market for chocolate is still not saturated, due to the constantly expanding middle class and urbanization, offering business opportunities for companies of different size.

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