Fazer Visitor Center Offers New Virtual Experience

Fazer is already looking towards Easter, with the production of the company’s unique Mignon eggs having started in November. A whole new virtual experience offering visitors a chance to see how these treats are made has just been introduced at the Fazer Experience Visitor Center, which welcomes more than 200,000 visitors a year. The growth in the number of visitors has been more than 15% this year.

Fazer’s chocolate factory in Vantaa, Finland, offers an opportunity for visitors to experience the manufacturing process for themselves.

The Fazer Experience Visitor Center has been growing in popularity ever since it opened in 2016. Last year, the total number of visitors exceeded 200,000, and this year has seen an increase of more than 15%. Almost half of all visitors take a guided tour of the exhibition.

“Since people are particularly interested in what happens at Fazer’s factories, we want to offer them the possibility to experience it in several different ways. The virtual experience has been part of the tour since the beginning, but it has now been completely renewed,” said Anu Kokko, director of Fazer Experience Visitor Center.

“In real life, the manufacture of the Mignon egg requires professional artisanship and extensive experience. The virtual experience offers a tiny glimpse of this. The visitors get to see their place in the Mignon production line and try filling a Mignon egg through VR glasses and with the help of a controller – while striving to minimize waste and taking sustainability into account, of course,” Kokko continues.

Visitors can also explore Fazer’s world through traditional screens. Screens show for example how Fazer Yosa oat snacks and Fazer’s Karelian pies are produced.

Mignon is not a chocolate egg but a delicacy containing 52 grams of almond nougat filling. It has been produced since 1896. Karl Fazer had seen similar eggs being produced in Germany and decided to start making them in Finland too. Today, the Mignon line consists of 40 professionals working from November to March. Roughly 10,000 eggs are produced each shift, and the total annual production amounts to approximately 1.6 million eggs.