Three cheeky chocolatiers have been sacked by factory bosses after they printed a rude message on thousands of Aero bars.

The production workers at Nestle Rowntree's York factory altered the sweet wrappers so the words 'S**t bar' appeared where the best before date and code should be.

Luckily the offending message was spotted by bosses before any of the chocolate left the factory.

A senior Nestl source said the trio were among nine York production staff originally suspended over the incident, in which the words 'S**t bar' appeared where a Best Before date and code would normally be printed.

The critics were given their marching orders on Monday morning.

However, the GMB union said today that it would be representing the employees in an appeal against their dismissal.

The company confirmed that a "misprint" had appeared on bars, but said that none of the offending chocolate had left the factory before the problem was spotted.

The source said: "Someone eventually coughed up and three people were dismissed over the affair.

"It's unfortunate, but we can't have people tampering with food safety."

The wrappers come to the factory on pre-printed rolls of paper, but the Best Before date and a code are printed on them during the production process in York.

About 20 pallets of Aeros were affected by the prank, but it is not yet known whether they were destroyed.

A Nestl spokeswoman said since sensitive personnel matters were involved, it could not comment at this stage.

John Kirk, GMB organiser, said the union would be representing the three employees in an appeal against their dismissal. The appeal will be part of an internal process within the company. Meanwhile, figures released today by Nestl for the first three months of 2004, revealed that its European zone performed poorly compared to its other world divisions, because of a "difficult retail environment".

But Nestl Rowntree's managing director Chris White said things were "going according to plan" at York's Wigginton Road-based plant.

"We've had a very good first quarter," he said.

Real internal growth in Zone Europe dropped by 0.7 per cent between January and March, 2004 and organic growth rose by only 0.4 per cent.

Overall however, Nestl performed well. Organic growth was up 5.1 per cent and real internal growth was up 3.4 per cent.

Peter Brabeck, chief executive officer of Nestl, said: "The good start into 2004 should allow us to attain our objectives for the year, both in terms of growth as well as profitability."