How Quality Street has cut down on quantity
IT MAY say quality on the tin, but the problem appears to be with quantity.
Laid side by side, the four octagonal tubs of Quality Street in this picture seem to confirm what we’ve long suspected – tins of the chocolate selection are shrinking.
The photograph shows how confectionery giant Nestle has slimmed down its tubs three times since 1998. Tins are now 780g – less than half the 1.7kg of the supersize produced a decade ago.
One fan of the chocolates was so annoyed that her favourite sweets were melting away year after year that she posted the image online.
Charlotte Stacey Hook, who keeps her tins every year to hold her Christmas decorations, wrote on the Quality Street Facebook page: ‘Look how they’ve changed in size from 1998 till 2014! Bring back the big tins!!! Loyal Quality Street customer!!!!’ Her posting had been viewed and ‘liked’ by 66,000 supporters by yesterday afternoon.
Although Miss Hook claims her oldest tin was bought in 1998, some online commenters argued that it could have been the brand’s design from the 1980s.
Nestle has been gradually reducing the number of chocolates in the tubs in recent years. Ten years ago, it was selling Quality Street in supersize tins of 1.7kg. That dropped to 1.2kg in 2007 and then 1.1kg in 2009.
There was another reduction to 1kg in 2011, before a cut to 820g in 2012 and then 780g in 2014, where it has remained. A spokesman for Nestle, who acquired Quality Street from Rowntree Mackintosh in 1988, said it was difficult to tell when each of the tins in Miss Hook’s picture was made, but said the newest one on the right appeared to be a current 780g tub.
The two containers in the middle date from the 2000s, while the one on the far left – which appears to be a limited edition tin that is not of standard size – was made in the late 1990s or early 2000s.
A spokesman added: ‘This image does not compare like for like. As well as the 780g tub pictured, we also have a 1.3kg tin available which lovers of Quality Street might like to try this Christmas.
‘We want to give the best possible value for money and we believe that this product is still extremely competitive.’ Last year, the chocolate giant came under fire after Quality Street tins were reduced from 820g to 780g – a cut of about five chocolates – but the price remained the same.