Fry's has had more chocolate bars quietly retired than almost any other British brand, and Five Centre — a bar built on the genuinely odd idea of five different fillings in one wrapper — is one of the more inventive ones to disappear.
Five fillings, one bar
Five Centre did exactly what the name suggests: a single chocolate bar divided into five segments, each with its own distinct fondant-style filling. The classic line-up ran to raspberry, coffee, blackcurrant, orange and lime, though the selection wasn't fixed — vanilla, strawberry and pineapple all turned up in the mix at various points across the bar's long run. Sources differ on exactly when it launched, with most giving 1934, though at least one account places it as early as 1924.
Nearly sixty years on shelves
Whichever launch date is correct, Five Centre had a genuinely long run by chocolate-bar standards, lasting close to six decades before it was finally discontinued in 1992. The reported reason was cost: running five separate fondant fillings through production was simply more expensive than making a single-filling bar, and as margins tightened, that complexity became the thing that did for it.
Not to be confused with Five Boys
It's worth separating Five Centre from Fry's other famous "five" bar, Five Boys — a plain chocolate bar known for its wrapper, which showed a boy's face in five different expressions rather than anything to do with the chocolate itself. The two bars shared a number in the name and a Fry's heritage, but otherwise had nothing in common: one was about packaging, the other about what was actually inside.
Where it leaves things today
There's no confirmed sign of Five Centre coming back into production. Fry's, now part of the wider Mondelez/Cadbury group, continues to make other filled bars under its own name — Chocolate Cream, Peppermint Cream and Orange Cream among them — but none of them replicate Five Centre's multi-flavour format. For anyone after the modern equivalent of a varied, filled chocolate bar, our wider Chocolate collection is the better place to look.
Frequently asked questions
What was Fry's Five Centre?
A chocolate bar with five different fondant-style centres in one bar, typically raspberry, coffee, blackcurrant, orange and lime.
When was Five Centre discontinued?
1992, after around 60 years, reportedly due to the cost of producing five separate fillings.
Was Five Centre the same as Fry's Five Boys?
No — Five Boys was a plain bar known for its five-expression wrapper. Five Centre was a different product with five actual fillings.
Can you still buy Fry's Five Centre?
No, with no confirmed relaunch, though Fry's still makes other filled bars like Chocolate Cream and Peppermint Cream.
Source: Wikipedia: Fry's Chocolate Cream.