TRBusiness editor Naomi with FNA’s Delphine Schmitt and Marie Davin.

Valrhona and Villars are utilising their return to the TFWA Asia Pacific Exhibition & Conference 2026 to underline their growing ambitions in Asia travel retail, with new destination-led gifting concepts, Asia-exclusive products and a stronger focus on accessible self-indulgence.

Exhibiting with long-standing partner FNA, the two chocolate brands are showcasing a series of launches and brand developments designed to respond to shifting shopper behaviour across the region.

For French chocolate house Valrhona, Asia remains a key strategic priority, with the brand placing increasing emphasis on products tailored specifically to regional preferences and travel retail missions. Speaking to TRBusiness at the show, Head of Retail Category Development Delphine Schmitt and International Retail & Travel Retail Trade Marketing Manager Marie Davin, said the brand is continuing to build its presence across major airport locations including Singapore, Dubai, Seoul, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and the Philippines, as well and London and Paris further afield.

Founded in 1922 by French pastry chef Albéric Guironnet in Tain-l’Hermitage, a small village in France’s Rhône Valley, Valrhona has long been associated with professional chefs and high-end gastronomy. The brand’s original product, the chocolate bonbon, quickly gained popularity among leading chefs and bakers in France, helping to establish Valrhona’s reputation as a premium chocolate specialist. Today, the company’s chocolate factory remains in Tain-l’Hermitage, while the brand continues to be used in top restaurants around the world.

Alongside its professional chef business, Valrhona has developed a retail offer with a strong focus on travel retail gifting. At TFWA Asia Pacific, the brand is spotlighting a selection of products created specifically for travellers, including its destination-inspired sleeve collection and limited-edition seasonal concepts.

According to Schmitt, destination relevance has become one of the most important pillars of the brand’s travel retail strategy. “We are really expanding the destination range because it is what customers are expecting,” said Schmitt. “We have a lot of gifting products and people are looking for souvenirs and gifts to take back home. We are trying to introduce more of a sense of place.”

Destination relevance has become one of the most important pillars of strategy at Valrhona.

Valrhona has been rapidly expanding the destination sleeve concept across key markets, with Bali introduced just days before the show. Other Asia Pacific destination editions include Seoul, Singapore, Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur, with the latter also launched in 2026.

The brand is also continuing to develop limited-edition concepts around key seasonal moments, including Chinese New Year. At TFWA Asia Pacific, Valrhona is highlighting a new Chinese New Year 2027 sleeve designed for its iconic 32 Squares box, following the strong performance of recent seasonal activations across Asia.

While gifting remains central to Valrhona’s travel retail offer, the brand is also adapting to changing purchasing behaviour in the region, particularly in China. “In Asia, we tend to focus on lower price products,” said Schmitt. “The gifting range is a little more expensive, so we are developing special products for Asia that are at a lower price, including a new product called Créations Chocolat, an Asia-exclusive product.”

This new Créations Chocolat line features chocolate hearts in dark and milk chocolate flavours and has been developed to offer a more accessible entry point for Asian consumers. “It is popular due to its more accessible price point,” added Schmitt. “That is one trend we are seeing specifically.”

Créations Chocolat is a new Asia-exclusive product for Valrhona.

The product is expected to launch soon and will be priced at around €15, compared with approximately €28 for Valrhona’s gifting boxes.

In the same vein, Valrhona is introducing a new snacking range designed to respond to growing demand for self-indulgent products in travel retail. The range includes an exclusive flavour combining toasted corn nuts coated in milk chocolate. “Gifting is actually declining in Asia, while self-indulgence is increasing, so we are developing more and more our small price and self-indulgent products like this,” said Schmitt.

Another important focus for Valrhona in Asia, and particularly among Chinese consumers, is the brand’s heritage and its long-standing connection with the world of professional gastronomy, and Schmitt said Chinese shoppers place strong value on Valrhona’s legacy and its relationships with chefs around the world. “We have been communicating the chef side, as well as the legacy of the brand, since 2025 in APAC, which is something we aren’t doing anywhere else in the world,” she explained.

Valrhona is also developing more self-indulgent products due to growing demand.

Villars, meanwhile, is using TFWA Asia Pacific as an important platform for the rollout of its renewed brand identity. The Swiss chocolate brand has refreshed its positioning with a greater emphasis on Swiss heritage, traceability and premiumisation, supported by a more contemporary and expressive visual language.

The repositioning includes refreshed packaging, updated bar designs and new indulgent recipes designed to strengthen the brand’s in-store impact and align more closely with premium shopper expectations. “We are building a new positioning, which includes changing all the packaging and creating new designs for the bars as well,” said Davin. “We are looking to make the collection even more premium.” Villars places strong emphasis on Swiss ingredients wherever possible, including sugar and milk sourced from farms located around the chocolate factory.

The brand has also recently launched dedicated Asia-exclusive products, including editions for the Philippines and Jeju Island, further reinforcing its focus on destination relevance in travel retail.

Villars is also strongly pushing a sense of place in travel retail.

According to Davin, Asia remains a promising region for Villars as it continues to build visibility and strengthen its premium credentials. “The brand is working well in Asia, so we are hoping to be able to take that even further,” she said.

Together, Valrhona and Villars are aiming to capture different but complementary opportunities in Asia travel retail, from premium gifting and destination-led souvenirs to more accessible self-indulgent formats. With shopper behaviour continuing to evolve, particularly across China and other fast-growing Asian markets, both brands are looking to balance heritage and premium positioning with products that are more relevant to today’s travelling consumers.

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