CUBE mania is set to hit Britain with the £20 million launch by Nestl Rowntree of KitKat Kubes.

Nestl has made its biggest-ever investment in machinery in Britain by spending more than £10 million on high-tech patented equipment to make the bite-sized KitKats at its York factory.

Another £10 million will be spent on promoting the product on TV and in shops, with a television advertising campaign due to start next Wednesday evening on ITV.

The company has pledged to invest a further £28 million on promoting Kubes over the next five years.

The ads, featuring The Italian Job star Jason Statham, will run with a new version of the traditional Have a Break catchphrase - Have a Lot of Little Breaks.

A spokeswoman said: "With new Kubes, everyone is encouraged to take lots of little breaks, because in these busy times of 24/7 culture, KitKat recognises that not everyone can have a break for longer than a few minutes.

"KitKat Kubes are ideal for encouraging people to have breaks more often to help them get through the day."

Nigel Glendinning, Kubes project manager, said products which it would compete against, such as Maltesers and Revels, were traditionally bought more by women than men.

But it was hoped Kubes would be as big a buy for men, for example to eat together while watching football on TV.

He said it had taken 30 months to take Kubes from the original idea to the marketplace.

Special equipment was needed to insert 10,000 wafers per minute into moulds.

Almost 20 million bags containing 320 million Kubes have been produced to meet anticipated demand.

Senior line operator Vi Bellwood said the Kubes were a good idea - and she expected her grandchildren to think the same. "They'll be saying: 'That's what nanna makes!'"

While the production of Kubes will not mean extra jobs at the York factory, the investment can be seen as another vote of confidence by Nestl in the future of the site.

The company hopes the new launch will boost overall sales of the UK's top confectionery brand in the same way that the smash-hit Kit Kat Chunky did some years ago.

Kubes are sold in 50g impulse bags for 37p, and 175g bags at £1.25p.

Meanwhile, Nestl has taken its It's Not for Girls advertising campaign for Yorkie bars a step further by launching a limited edition of the chocolate called Blokie. The company says it follows the production of a limited edition pink version of the bar for women earlier this year.

Updated: 10:38 Friday, September 26, 2003