Less Cadbury choc in your block, same price
Cadbury will shrink the size of its family-sized chocolate blocks to cut its costs.
The announcement sparked fresh controversy on the company’s Facebook page, under the heading ‘‘Next month you will notice something a little different about our Cadbury family blocks’’. Within minutes, angry comments poured onto the page.
As an example, Cadbury said the Dairy Milk, Black Forest and Old Gold blocks, which are 200 grams, will drop to 180g.
Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Moro family block will drop from 180g to 175g. But Dairy Milk Bubbly Mint increases from 155g to 160g.
In a statement, Cadbury marketing director Paul Chatfield said it was a case of either raising prices or cutting block sizes. He called it a ‘‘slight’’ reduction.
‘‘We recognise some Cadbury fans will be disappointed by the smaller block size, so we’re working with our retail partners to ensure we continue to deliver the best value to consumers.’’
Cadbury, which is owned by processed-food conglomerate Mondelez International, has done the downsizing move before.
In 2009, it cut the family block sizes from 250g to 200g. But after customers complained it lifted the block sizes back to 220g in 2013.
That lasted two years – in 2015 it chopped the family-sized 220g blocks to 200g.
It also cut share packs from 200g to 180g, cut baking chocolatechip packets by 30g and trimmed single Freddo frogs by 3g.
The changes were made with the explanation that it was a way to help keep chocolate affordable by cutting costs.
Cadbury also changed the recipe for Cadbury’s Creme Eggs in 2015 to save money.
More recent controversies include closing its Dunedin factory in 2018, at a cost of 350 jobs, and shifting all chocolate production to Australia.
And in September last year Cadbury also changed the Roses chocolates mix, adding two new flavours and re-jigging the recipes of its classics.