JACKSON, MICH. — Nestle Professional, a foodservice division of Nestle, Vevey, Switzerland, and Dawn Foods have signed a long-term contract for co-branding sweet bakery products in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (EMENA). The two companies will develop a range of items such as cookies and muffins for bakery channels and quick-service restaurants.

“We are delighted about this partnership with Dawn, which will allow us to bring to our consumers new, innovative experiences with our confectionery brands,” said Vincent de Clippele, head of Nestle Professional EMENA. “We selected Dawn as our EMENA partner because of the high quality of their bakery products, their capability to convey our brands experiences to the consumers and their leading position in the sweet bakery industry.”

Under the partnership, Dawn will create recipes that include Nestle confections. The first product to launch will be a KitKat muffin filled with milk chocolate and covered with a KitKat topping. The muffin will be wrapped in branded “Made with KitKat” cups and promoted with in-store marketing materials.

“The muffin made with KitKat is the result of Dawn’s market leadership in American pastry and the strengths of Nestle’s confectionery brands, which gives the unique KitKat product taste experience,” said Steven Verweij, president, Europe and Africa, Middle East and Asian Pacific, Dawn. “Dawn and Nestle Professional have agreed to a long-term commitment to co-design new bakery products that carry the essence of the brand by combining state of the art bakery mixes with the best branded ingredients.”