Nestl Rowntree is investing more than £10 million in a new chocolate bar to challenge best-selling rivals Cadbury's Dairy Milk and Galaxy.

Nestl Double Cream - made at the York factory - is the first new chocolate bar to be launched by the company in five years.

It contains no milk powder, whey or milk solid substitutes, and has no added vegetable fats. It is the first milk chocolate bar made with double cream.

More than £1million has been invested in research and development in York, and a £9 million promotional campaign is planned, including TV ads based around the theme of temptation, which are due to start showing in September.

The company describes the chocolate as a finely-blended balance between intensely-flavoured Ecuadorian cocoa beans and real double cream.

The package carries the message: "You deserve me. No really you do. Devour my double cream, savour my fine cocoa beans from Ecuador, and remember... chocolate matters."

Nestl spokesman Paul Kirkwood said the combination of cocoa and cream provided a fuller flavour designed to suit the increasing sophistication of British chocolate-lovers' taste buds.

Brand manager Claire Hebron compared the bar's impact on the current chocolate market to the arrival of wines from Australia on the British wine sector in the 1980s.

"Such a transformation is about to hit the chocolate market, adding a new quality mainstream to a category only offering traditional chocolate brands or connoisseur brands."

Nestl said the production of the new bar would not mean any extra jobs, but would help safeguard existing employment at the Haxby Road factory.

Nestl Double Cream will be available shortly, retailing at 40p for a 47 gram bar and £1.09 for a 150 gram bar.

Updated: 10:15 Saturday, July 27, 2002