Kit Kat - Brand Name and Appearance

Brand Name and Appearance

Originally named Rowntree's chocolate crisp, the traditional red wrapper of the original bar briefly became blue between 1945–1947. As a result of milk shortages after the end of World War II, the milk chocolate coating was suspended and a dark chocolate was used instead during that period.

The Hershey Company has a licence to produce Kit Kat bars in the United States which dates from 1970 (a license for Rolo was executed with Rowntree one year later), when Hershey executed a licensing agreement for Kit Kat and Rolo with Rowntree in the United States (and for Oh Henry! in Canada). Nestlé, which has a substantial presence in the US, had to honour the licensing agreement when it bought Rowntree in 1988 which allows Hershey to retain the Kit Kat/Rolo/Oh Henry! licence so long as Hershey is not sold. As Kit-Kat is one of Hershey's top five brands in the U.S. market, the Kit Kat license was a key factor in Hershey's failed attempt to attract a serious buyer in 2002.

Hershey's Kit Kat packaging and advertising in the USA has differed from the branding used in every other country where it is sold, although in 2002 Hershey Kit Kats finally started to adopt the slanted ellipse logo used worldwide by Nestlé (though the ellipse is red and the text is white, rather than the other way around). It is possible to purchase the (imported) Nestle version of the Kit Kat Chunky in various speciality shops in the US. The US native "Kit Kat Chunky" is known as "Big Kat".

In Norway, a similar product is manufactured by Kraft Foods and sold as Kvikk Lunsj; Kvikk Lunsj XXL is similar to a Kit Kat Chunky.