Cadbury’s Chocolate Bars Are Shrinking
Cadbury chocolate bars are getting smaller and there is only one culprit to blame.
This article is more than 2 years old
Every company is making significant cutbacks these days. Cadbury, famous for its Cadbury Eggs, is shrinking the size of its chocolate bars by 10%. Even with less product in the candy bar, the price for a Cadbury chocolate bar remains unchanged. Its parent company, Mondelez, blamed the increased cost of goods and transportation on this size implementation.
It’s no secret that prices for most products have gone up since the start of the pandemic. With higher demand for gas and continued labor shortages, the cost of standard crop cultivation and its transport have skyrocketed. This has put massive strains on the food industry, which has to increase the prices for their goods to match their higher ingredient expenses. Mondelez is mitigating this situation by changing its Cadbury chocolate bars to 180g from 200g while keeping the price at two euros per bar.
Before the Cadbury chocolate bar reduction happened, the company was already accused of swindling its customers. In 2020, people blamed the candy company for the “shrinkflation” of its products. Cadbury has sadly fulfilled that accusation, downsizing its famous chocolate bar for no price decrease. Even in 2020, the company started to shrink the sizes of certain candy bars, but only to reduce the calorie count. With a market threatened by exorbitant manufacturing costs, Cadbury is slashing more candy bars to alleviate this problem.
Cadbury chocolate bars that were sold in packs got a significant size reduction in 2021. Crunchie, Wispa, and Twirl bars, all sold together as mini versions in a combo pack, were shrunk to lower their calorie counts. Now, each bar has precisely 200 calories. This concerned fans of the chocolate brand, who blamed the company for keeping the prices the same for the combo pack. Mondelez doubled down, stating that the reason for the candy reduction was for “tackling obesity,” not a ploy to decrease their manufacturing expenses.
Crunchie, Wispa, and Twirl full bars remained unaffected by the shrinkage in 2021. This also baffled consumers since parent company Mondelez assured the public that the Cadbury chocolate bar reduction had to do with health and not to cut company costs. Mondelez added that keeping the single-serve bars the same size was intended for “offering customers different portion sizes.” Whether the continued reduction of Cadbury products between 2021 and 2022 was for health reasons is still debatable. But with the newest shrinkage occurrence, it’s clear that Cadbury has multiple motives for diminishing its chocolate bar sizes.
The rate of inflation in the UK highly affected the decision for Cadbury’s chocolate bar reduction. Last week, inflation rates hit the highest record in 30 years, reaching a percentage of 6.2%. Mondelez commented on this accelerated inflation, adding that its affected every portion of candy making, from purchasing ingredients to packaging. The unfathomable rise in inflation rates not only affects the food industry but regular households across the UK and the globe.
Cadbury chocolate bars may be getting a size reduction, but they’re not the only food product affected by the astronomical inflation rate. Food distributors everywhere are attempting to mitigate rising material costs, and shrinking a product’s size is just one way to cut company expenses.
