Nestlé Confirms Theft of 12 Tons of KitKat Bars en Route to Poland

More than 400,000 KitKat bars weighing about 12 tons were stolen from a truck traveling from a Nestlé factory in central Italy to Poland on a Monday morning in late March, Fortune reported. The theft occurred days before Easter. No one was injured.

Nestlé confirmed the disappearance on X with the statement: “We’ve always encouraged people to have a break with KitKat. ” The post received 393,000 likes overnight, the highest total in the account’s history. Nestlé and agency partner VML launched a tracker allowing users to scan an eight-digit batch code on wrappers to determine whether the product came from the missing shipment.

More than 2.2 million people clicked on or engaged with the tool. KitKat’s daily social video views rose from about 1 million to 29 million. The tracker flagged three suspicious batch codes and produced one lead that entered an active police investigation.

A follow-up stunt in Toronto showed security personnel escorting a KitKat-branded truck. Domino’s, KFC, and Ryanair joined the campaign. Nestlé analysts estimated the resulting media coverage would have cost $224 million in paid advertising over 10 days.

Mélanie Brinbaum, Nestlé’s European head of marketing and consumer communications, said the company decided to publicize the incident after internal discussion rather than remain silent. She noted that cargo crime remains a broader industry problem, citing 30,543 incidents in Europe between 2024 and 2025 that produced documented losses of €860.5 million.

Nestlé reduced the number of brands receiving media support from more than 400 in early 2024 to 150 in 2026, according to its investor report.

The company owns more than 2,000 brands across 186 countries.