logo
Celebrations chocolate in big return just months after being pulled from Australian shelves

Celebrations chocolate in big return just months after being pulled from Australian shelves

7NEWS3 days ago
An Australian-favourite chocolate variety box will return to supermarket shelves, just months after it was discontinued.
Cost and supply challenges were blamed when it was announced in November that Celebrations would no longer be available in Australia.
The decision left social media in shock and customers scrambling to source a box from quickly dwindling supply.
But people power is now being credited with the comeback of the Mars-branded confectionary product.
'The consumer response demanding the return of Celebrations last year was incredible so we are thrilled to bring Celebrations back to supermarket shelves around the country,' Mars Wrigley spokesperson Ben Hill said.
'For decades, Celebrations has featured prominently at family gatherings, events and of course, celebrations of all kinds.
'We can't wait for everyone to enjoy them again and for hopefully many years to come.'
Prices for the boxes — which include Snickers, Mars, Bounty, Milky Way, Maltesers, Galaxy and Galaxy Caramel — will start at $16.
They will be available in Woolworths from next week and Coles will have them in August.
The websites for the supermarket giants currently show the products are 'currently unavailable' and 'out of stock'.
Kmart already has them available to buy online.
Popular food reviewer Russ Eats, who previously ranked Celebrations as the best Christmas chocolate, shared news of the return with his followers.
'(The packaging says) 'Australia has spoken' so I'd like to think we (the public) brought them back but I do think there was some problems and they were going to come back anyway,' he said.
'I can confirm (the chocolates) taste the same.'
One person described the update as a 'Christmas miracle'.
The backflip comes after cost and supply challenges were blamed for the chocolate box being pulled from shelves late last year.
'Our Celebrations products were imported from Europe and, like many Australian businesses importing products from overseas, we're experiencing rising cost pressures and supply challenges,' a Mars spokesperson said at the time.
'Late last year (in 2023), we made the difficult decision to discontinue the Celebrations brand in Australia.'
The mixed chocolate boxes have been a popular staple of special occasions since launching in 1997.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Melissa Price: PM must be clear-eyed to security threat posed by China
Melissa Price: PM must be clear-eyed to security threat posed by China

West Australian

time19 minutes ago

  • West Australian

Melissa Price: PM must be clear-eyed to security threat posed by China

The first duty of the Australian Government is to keep Australians safe and the nation secure. This duty intensifies when the Government declares that Australia is confronting its most complex strategic environment in 80 years. In large part this is because of the rapid expansion of China's People's Liberation Army, which our Minister for Defence has described as the biggest increase in military capability and build-up in a conventional sense by any country since World War II. At such a time, you would rightly expect the Government to not just be talking about the threat, but to be working to make us as strong as possible, as fast as possible. Regrettably, that is not what our Government is doing. The Prime Minister has not budged on defence spending which not only limits our own strategic capability, but has the secondary effect of undermining the backbone of our security policy — our alliance with the United States. The US has served as the guarantor of regional stability since WWII. This role hasn't been limited to our region, and it has been costly for the US taxpayer. The US is currently US$37 trillion in debt and the conflicts in Europe and the Middle East have many Americans asking why America's allies aren't bearing more of the cost burden to guarantee their own defence. This push from the Americans culminated in NATO countries last month committing to lift core defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and a further 1.5 per cent of GDP on broader defence and security related investments by 2035. The Trump administration has called on Australia to increase our own defence spending and is currently reviewing the AUKUS agreement. I'm a believer in AUKUS and proud to have been part of the team as minister for defence industry who secured it. Obtaining nuclear submarines will serve as a significant deterrent to future attacks on Australia. To ensure the continuation of this agreement, it is imperative we demonstrate that we are a credible ally. This means investing enough to operate and maintain these submarines, while not skimping out on other defence priorities. The Coalition took to the last election a policy to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP over the next 10 years and we are prepared to work in a bipartisan manner with the Government to deliver increased investment. Like NATO we should also strengthen our sovereign industrial base and commit to greater funding to protect our critical infrastructure against attacks including cyber. As shadow minister for cyber security, I understand that cyber security is national security. As the Government's last annual cyber threat report outlined, state-sponsored cyber operations are an ongoing concern. These actors are engaged in intelligence gathering, interference, coercion and are working to gain a foothold within critical networks. Should the strategic environment deteriorate significantly, Australia could face major and disruptive cyber attacks. This is an awkward fact for the Prime Minister to navigate with him last week in China. While they are our major trading partner, they are also the source of our consternation. This was an important trip for the Australia-China relationship, but it could also send the wrong message to our US allies. The Prime Minister should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. He should advocate for continued trade with China, which is vital for our economic prosperity, particularly here in WA, but he must be clear-eyed about our national security and call out unacceptable behaviour. Reiterating where we stand will send an important message to the US as AUKUS remains under review. This is assuming the Prime Minister's failure to meet with President Trump since the November election, his bizarre John Curtin Oration, and his resistance to increase defence spending haven't spoiled the deal already. If not, there is still a lot of work to be done. While we may not get our first submarines until the early 2030s, US and UK submarines are set to begin rotating through HMAS Stirling in 2027. Our readiness to host these submarines will be an early test and critical in signalling our commitment to AUKUS. State and Federal Labor need to put their shoulder to the wheel to get that part of AUKUS right, otherwise we can almost kiss goodbye having our own fleet of nuclear submarines. Australia is at a crossroads. It is past time the Prime Minister gets serious. Melissa Price is the Member for Durack

Lack of AI playbook puts Australia down readiness ranks
Lack of AI playbook puts Australia down readiness ranks

West Australian

timean hour ago

  • West Australian

Lack of AI playbook puts Australia down readiness ranks

Two in three Australian businesses are not ready to implement artificial intelligence, a study has found, despite most companies being committed to spending more on the technology. The lack of clear plans or trained staff has dragged Australia down the AI readiness rankings over the past year, even though most employees remain concerned about the effect it will have on their jobs. ServiceNow released the findings from its AI Maturity Index on Monday, leading experts to warn businesses to reassess their plans for artificial intelligence or risk missing out on productivity gains. The warning comes as the federal government prepares to host a summit on boosting productivity, and after the Productivity Commission named AI as one of its five focus areas for the coming year. The company's AI Maturity Index, prepared with Oxford Economics, surveyed more than 4400 senior business leaders from 16 countries including 560 Australian executives. It found Australian businesses were less prepared to implement AI than they were in the previous year, falling from a score of 46 points out of 100 to 35. The lower grade reflects one in three business leaders saying their companies had a clear vision to change using AI, and 37 per cent said they had the right mix of skills and talent in their workforce. The result was particularly surprising, ServiceNow emerging technology director Dani Magnusson said, as most Australian companies planned to increase AI spending over the coming year. "We've got 82 per cent of organisations investing in AI but only a third of those organisations setting a clear vision and strategy for how it gets implemented across the organisation," she told AAP. "Businesses aren't planning for AI." Keeping the technology "siloed" in individual business departments was holding back progress, Ms Magnussen said, although businesses should also consider whether their employees had the right skills to implement AI reform. "There's no question it will give us more productivity and more capacity and it will take away some of the parts of the jobs and the roles that we don't enjoy doing today," she said. But the survey also identified widespread fear among employees, with six in 10 Australian executives saying workers had raised concerns about job security due to generative AI. The research predicted the technology could be used to automate 670,000 roles by 2030, while it created a comparatively few 150,000 technology jobs. The findings should encourage more workers to learn about the technology, management consultancy Bain & Company's Asia Pacific AI head Richard Fleming said, and for organisations to make AI tools available to staff for experimentation. "It's now our responsibility to start individually using AI and working out how do I use it in my everyday life, how do I use it at work to build skills and understanding," he told AAP. "We should be embracing AI and training people on how to use it, training them on the risks, and that becomes a broad responsibility."

Lack of AI playbook puts Australia down readiness ranks
Lack of AI playbook puts Australia down readiness ranks

Perth Now

timean hour ago

  • Perth Now

Lack of AI playbook puts Australia down readiness ranks

Two in three Australian businesses are not ready to implement artificial intelligence, a study has found, despite most companies being committed to spending more on the technology. The lack of clear plans or trained staff has dragged Australia down the AI readiness rankings over the past year, even though most employees remain concerned about the effect it will have on their jobs. ServiceNow released the findings from its AI Maturity Index on Monday, leading experts to warn businesses to reassess their plans for artificial intelligence or risk missing out on productivity gains. The warning comes as the federal government prepares to host a summit on boosting productivity, and after the Productivity Commission named AI as one of its five focus areas for the coming year. The company's AI Maturity Index, prepared with Oxford Economics, surveyed more than 4400 senior business leaders from 16 countries including 560 Australian executives. It found Australian businesses were less prepared to implement AI than they were in the previous year, falling from a score of 46 points out of 100 to 35. The lower grade reflects one in three business leaders saying their companies had a clear vision to change using AI, and 37 per cent said they had the right mix of skills and talent in their workforce. The result was particularly surprising, ServiceNow emerging technology director Dani Magnusson said, as most Australian companies planned to increase AI spending over the coming year. "We've got 82 per cent of organisations investing in AI but only a third of those organisations setting a clear vision and strategy for how it gets implemented across the organisation," she told AAP. "Businesses aren't planning for AI." Keeping the technology "siloed" in individual business departments was holding back progress, Ms Magnussen said, although businesses should also consider whether their employees had the right skills to implement AI reform. "There's no question it will give us more productivity and more capacity and it will take away some of the parts of the jobs and the roles that we don't enjoy doing today," she said. But the survey also identified widespread fear among employees, with six in 10 Australian executives saying workers had raised concerns about job security due to generative AI. The research predicted the technology could be used to automate 670,000 roles by 2030, while it created a comparatively few 150,000 technology jobs. The findings should encourage more workers to learn about the technology, management consultancy Bain & Company's Asia Pacific AI head Richard Fleming said, and for organisations to make AI tools available to staff for experimentation. "It's now our responsibility to start individually using AI and working out how do I use it in my everyday life, how do I use it at work to build skills and understanding," he told AAP. "We should be embracing AI and training people on how to use it, training them on the risks, and that becomes a broad responsibility."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store