Did you know that Bounty chocolate bars are actually made with coconuts sourced from the Philippines?
Love chocolates? Aside from Toblerone, Hershey's, Cadbury, and Tootsie Roll, Mars Wrigley’s chocolate bar Bounty has been a crowd favorite in different parts of the world—but did you know that it's made with Philippine coconuts?
That's what PhilSTAR L!fe learned during the 60th anniversary celebration of the snack company’s presence in the country.
“Bounty is a coconut-based chocolate bar. They are one of the very tastier bars, which I love. But all the coconut that we buy is mostly from the Philippines, so a lot of local coconut farmers are supported by us,” Mars Wrigley Asia General Manager Kalpesh Parmar said.
Bounty is loved for its unique taste from coconut fillings covered with milk chocolate.
While the sweet treat is not being sold in supermarkets here at present, you can get your hands on Bounty bars through various online retailers like Shopee, Lazada, and other specialty candy shops.
L!fe recently got to tour the Mars Wrigley Factory, which manufactures M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles, Twix, and other popular treats in the Philippines.
They first established their presence in the country in 1965 through their very own plant in Pasig. They eventually moved to Antipolo in 1999 where they continue to produce well-known chewing gum brands such as Doublemint, Juicy Fruit, and Cool Air.
Since then, they have gone on to bring in new technologies to streamline their gum-making process. They are now producing up to 30 metric tons of chewing gum products daily, with 86% exported to countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Laos, and Brunei.
The local branch currently employs more than 170 employees, or associates as they like to call them, and a few of them have been with the company for over 30 years. This is shown through stars etched in their uniforms, each one corresponding to a decade.
During the tour, L!fe learned that the Antipolo plant has been active in reducing their carbon footprint through investing in a new biomass boiler, which enables them to use rice husk collected from the farmers of the nearby communities as its renewable energy source instead of diesel. This has reduced the plant’s annual carbon emissions by approximately 679 tons.
Mars Wrigley is set to invest $2 million (P114 million) over the next three years to further improve their infrastructure, packaging, and machinery.