A CONTRACT to personalise Toblerone bars this Christmas has been awarded to a Swindon firm whose owners have spent 30 years in the printing business.

Rushey Platt-based Emagination Store won the contract worth more than half-a-million pounds from global confectionery giant Mondelez, after the firm was impressed by work they had done with Tesco.

This Christmas, UK customers will be able to buy Toblerone bars with their name or a message emblazoned on the box in the chocolate bar’s distinctive font. The printing and the orders will be done by Emagination owners Cats Solutions at their warehouse off Redpost Drive.

The personalisation service will launch online and in Tesco stores on November 20.

And the company has already tested the personalised Toblerones on comic character fans at the London Comic Con last month.

Emagination managing director Greg Smith said: “A couple came up to the stand and, once his girlfriend had left, the man asked us to put ‘Will you marry me?’ on a Toblerone.”

Excited, the team thought they were going to witness what could have been one of the first marriage proposals spelled out on a chocolate bar wrapper.

“But he’s saving it for Christmas Eve,” said Greg.

The printing boss has been in the trade for three decades, launching his first digital printing business Copy Cats on Commercial Road over 20 years ago. Greg’s company, Cats Solutions, owns and oversees Emagination Store – set up to help businesses process online orders from customers wanting to personalise those firm’s products with their own name or messages.

The new partnership was good news for Swindon and the culmination of years’ of hard work, said the managing director.

“We’ve been pushing personalisation on products now for three or four years and finally the market has woken up,” he added. “Before, we were saying ‘What can we personalise?’ Now, we’re asking what can’t we personalise? It’s an exciting time.”

Mondelez director Christian von Alten visited Emagination's Rushey Platt office yesterday. The printworks made him a jumper, hat and scarf personalised with the Toblerone logo and emblazoned with his name.

"We wanted to prove that personalisation isn't about stamping your name on something," Greg said. The clothing was produced using Cats Solution's digital knitting machine.

The Toblerone personalisation service will be launched in the UK from November 20. Only 360g versions of the Toblerones can be personalised with a name or message. Visit: www.mytoblerone.co.uk.