Over 2,500 products shrink but prices stay the same
MORE than 2,500 consumer products have shrunk in size over the past five years despite being sold for the same price, official data shows.
According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS), the so-called ‘shrinkflation’ effect has hit items including chocolate bars, toilet rolls, coffee and fruit juice. However, most of the items getting smaller were food products.
Over the same period, 614 products had become larger between 2012 and 2017.
The data revealed the idea that Brexit has led to a shrinkflation boom, due to the weaker pound making imports more expensive, is a fallacy. Despite it contributing to an increase in the price of some imported goods, the ONS dismissed Brexit as a reason for recent shrinkf lation.
“Our analysis doesn’t show a noticeable change following the referendum that would point to a Brexit effect,” it said. It also cast doubt on whether the cost of raw materials, on which manufacturers have often blamed price hikes, has actually increased.
The European import price of sugar has been falling since the middle of 2014, and reached a record low in March 2017, it said. Meanwhile the price of cocoa, another major ingredient, reached a five-year high in December 2015, but has fallen sharply over the last year.
Mark Jones, a food and drink solicitor at Gordons law firm, said: “Shrinkflation was borne out of the recession and has gathered staggering pace since 2009. The ONS’s report confirms this. Against the backdrop of a weak economy, commodity prices have been rising over the last five years.
“The recession made people very price sensitive and you can see the evidence of that by looking at the impressive growth of discount retailers in the last five years, no retail sector has grown faster.
“Suppliers and retailers do not want to raise the ‘on the shelf’ price, but have had to adapt to increasing commodity prices. Shrinking the size of the products being sold, whether toilet paper, chocolate or cleaning products, is a way of pushing through a price increase.”