The Nestlé group has announced the construction of a theme park dedicated to chocolate, which will be located in Broc, Switzerland. The goal? Offer total immersion in the world of food production.
As paradoxical as it may seem, Gruyère will soon be the capital of chocolate. It is indeed in this district famous for its cheese, located in Switzerland, in the canton of Fribourg, that the Nestlé group decided to build a theme park dedicated to the most popular sweet food in the world.
“Whether savory with cheese, or sweet with chocolate, the district of Gruyère will become the capital of delicacies”, welcomed Olivier Curty, director of the Economy of the canton of Fribourg, whose statements are relayed by The weather.
An understandable satisfaction, since, as the Swiss daily explains, this project, which amounts to “at 80 million francs [76 950 €]” should significantly increase tourism in the region.
“The objective is to increase the Gruyère site from 400,000 annual visitors to 700,000, initially, then to one million”, says the Geneva daily, which recalls that a chocolate factory offering tours already exists on site. This is Maison Cailler, a chocolate manufacturer acquired by Nestlé, whose factory represents the “3rd most visited museum in Switzerland”.
It is from this already existing structure that the promoters of the project intend to create a theme park, which, according to The weather, should look like this:
The project will offer ‘a complete immersion in the heart of chocolate production’, addressing the themes of cocoa, its history, chocolate in Switzerland and milk from Gruyère. ‘It won’t be a Luna Park with a rollercoaster, but a new kind of park’, notes Olivier Quillet, project manager for Nestlé. It evokes different routes to discover the history of the product and its manufacture, the concepts of which for the time being have been entrusted to the team of scenographers who have worked on the Chaplin’s World museum in Corsier. At the end of the visit, there will also be the ‘chocolate station’ with its traditional workshops, shops and tastings.”
Lindt competition to beat
Regarding the financing of this expansion and transformation of the historic Maison Cailler (which opened in 1898), it will be provided by the company Jogne Invest. “It is she who will have the task of financing, building and operating the park, precise The weather. Nestlé providing its land, know-how and license rights.”
The opening of the site is scheduled for 2025, and it should allow Maison Cailler to compete in terms of attractiveness with other Swiss chocolate factories, and in particular the House of chocolate, opened by Lindt on the shores of Lake Zürich.
A major rival, according to the French-language daily, who knew “make an impression with its 9-meter-high chocolate fountain”.
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Born in March 1998 from the merger of New Daily, from Geneva Journal and some Lausanne Gazette, this centre-right title, popular with executives, presents itself as the reference daily in French-speaking Switzerland and
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