Gourmet, addictive, regressive, the emblematic Finger sticks are nowhere to be found in French supermarkets. supermarkets in France since last spring. The Libération which revealed the mysterious disappearance in its October 31 edition. “I feel like crying“, “Noooo!“, “We have no right to happiness“, “The end of an era“Fans of these elongated, chocolate-covered cookies were moved to tears on social network X.

Marketed under the name Fingers in the plural in England, the sticks are a historic product of the famous confectioner Cadbury, a company founded in 1824 in Birmingham and which became a single brand of the food giant Mondelez International in 2010. Contacted by Le Figaro, Mondelez’s French branch confirms that “this reference (the Finger) has been absent from the French market since May 2024″.“. The group specifies that the cookies “are neither manufactured nor directly distributed by Mondelez International in France.“and that they “were available through an intermediate distributor“. This suggests that it is this “intermediate distributor“which is responsible for the cookies’ absence from supermarket shelves.

The previous Figolu

However, the French distributor in question, Lightbody Europe, assures our colleagues at Libération that the decision is not his but the manufacturer’s. The two parties are therefore passing the buck. Was this a deliberate marketing choice on Mondelez’s part, or a simple supply chain snag within a multinational with a thousand ramifications? It has to be said that the Cadbury Finger brand doesn’t carry much weight in an empire that also includes LU, Oreo, Côte d’Or, Belvita and Toblerone. In France, the sticks face competition from replicas of private labels, and even “choco sticks” from Milka, another Mondelez brand.

The fact remains that, after long months of general indifference, the subject of the Finger’s disappearance in France is emerging in the media sphere, and arousing sadness among consumers. “We are exploring solutions to re-launch the iconic Cadbury Finger on the French market.“says Mondelez France, not unmoved by the public outcry. The affair is reminiscent of the traditional Figolu from LUwhich in 2015 were replaced by “Figolu La Barre” in a different form. A petition was launched to demand the return of the original recipe. Five years later, in the middle of a lockdown, Mondelez’s General Manager for France announced the return of the real Figolu. The operation is a success. Will the Fingers follow suit?