Nestle reduces tubs of favourite Christmas sweet Quality Street

NESTLE is reducing tubs of toffee pennies and strawberry delights.

Tubs of Quality Street have been shrunk again meaning shoppers will be paying the same for even fewer green triangles, toffee pennies and strawberry delights than before.

Nestle has decreased Quality Street tub sizes from 650 grams to 600 grams but is charging the same price of £4.

It is also downsizing the confectionary brand’s smaller cartons from 240 grams to 220 grams, according to The Grocer. 

This is the first time the chocolate giant – which also makes KitKats – has squeezed Quality Streets in four years after being heavily criticised for its annual policy of ripping off customers.

In 2018 Nestle reduced the standard tub size from 750 grams to 720 grams having shrunk the tubs by 40 per cent over the last decade.

A Nestle spokesman told The Grocer: “A new Quality Street range with formats, sizes, weights and rsps based on a range of factors, including the cost of , ingredients and transport, and the preferences of our customers and consumers.”

Shrinkflation is the phenomenon of pack sizes falling while prices remain the same and a number of the world’s biggest household brands are at it.

Companies including Nestle, Flora, Unilever, Reckitt Benckiser, Cadbury’s, Richmond sausages, Kleenex, and Mars have all been steadily shrinking pack sizes but sticking with the same price in a move to combat rising costs.

Tubs of Flora recently shrunk from 500g to 450g but the price has stayed the same as owner Upfield deals with soaring sunflower oil costs, caused by the war in Ukraine. 

Nestle has recently reduced their Aero sharing bags by 7 per cent from 201g to 218g and M&M crispy pouches by 13 per cent down from 246g grams to 213 grams despite both chocolate bags saying “more to share”,

Magnum has shrunk its chocolate covered ice creams from 110 ml to 100 ml but kept packs of four at £3. 

Raw ingredient prices, packaging, staff costs and shipping have all become significantly more expensive in the past year  and companies are now passing that on to shoppers. 

Official figures showed this week that the cost of making food has now hit record levels which has led to big consumer companies trying to push higher prices on supermarkets.

However, supermarkets are conscious that cash-strapped shoppers will switch to cheaper rivals and argue that they make a quarter of the profit margins that consumer groups do.

For example Unilever’s profit margin was 18.4 per cent last year while Tesco’s was 4.5 per cent.