TELEVISION and social media campaigns behind chocolate bar favourites KitKat and Yorkie helped York-based Nestle report a strong year.

The group, which announced a £500m UK investment programme last year, said it would recruit 300 new staff this year as part of the plans to expand its Nescafe coffee plant in Tutbury, in south Derbyshire.

It also said it was creating 100 new apprentice and graduate jobs across all its sites this year.

The multi-million pound investment plan will see Nestle extend its product technology centre at York, where bars such as Aero and Yorkie are made.

Like-for-like European sales were up 1.8 per cent to 15.4bn Swiss francs (£10.8bn) last year.