Godiva wants to conquer the world through supermarkets

Belgian praline brand Godiva will soon sell its chocolate in supermarkets all over the world after signing a deal with chains like Albert Heijn and Sainsbury’s. Previously, it sold nearly all its chocolate through its own store network.

Goal: a 2 billion dollar turnover

The new Godiva Masterpieces product line will soon be available in supermarkets: Sainsbury’s in the United Kingdom and Albert Heijn in Belgium and the Netherlands have signed deals, but the chocolate brand did similarly with supermarkets in Canada, China, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, Turkey and the United States.

Godiva already has 800 stores, across more than 100 countries. It also sells its chocolate in major department store, specialty stores, in airports and online. The Sainsbury’s collaboration immediately adds 500 additional points of sale in the United Kingdom, where it previously only had its own twelve stores and several department stores as points of sale.

The brand is now tapping into the supermarket audience, because it wants to achieve rapid growth: it hopes to reach a 2 billion dollar (1.7 billion euro) turnover by 2022. It is unclear what its current turnover is, but the target could be more than twice as much as what it generates now.

Godiva is part of Pladis, Turkish Yildiz Holding’s candy division. Its owner already divulged it had major plans for the brand, expanding not only its product range, but also entering new markets, like Asia and the Middle East.