The organization of the Market for industrial Chocolate

There is no boundaries between cocoa processors and chocolate manufacturers as most cocoa processors also produce couverture (industrial chocolate).Producers of industrial chocolate fall into two broad categories:

1) Largest manufacturers of branded consumer articles that produce their industrial chocolate and mainly use it inhouse to make consumer products (integrated chain) : Nestlé, Mars, Hershey, Cadbury, Kraft, Jacobs Suchard, Ferrero and Cemoi.

2) Leading cocoa-processing companies that supply most of their output of couverture to third parties : Barry Callebaut, Cargill, ADM and Bloomer

"In the past, chocolate companies were more diverse than at present and mainly consisted of companies marketing their products on their own domestic markets. The market is now dominated by large multinational confectionery companies, which market their brands in all major consumer countries. Following a series of mergers and acquisitions in the chocolate industry, five companies alone – Nestlé, Ferrero, Mars, Kraft Jacobs Suchard, and Cadbury Schweppes – have come to control more than half of the European market for consumer chocolate. This aggregate figure masks a higher degree of concentration in specific national markets and for specific product categories. Already in the mid-1990s, for example, Cadbury, Mars and Nestle accounted for approximately 75–80 per cent of the UK chocolate confectionery market."

Cocoa Industry Structures and Competition, United Nations 2008