Popular Chocolate Manufacturer Makes Sneaky Changes! : In recent years, manufacturers of food and drink products have come under fire quite frequently, often due to the rising prices of products but mainly because of the reduction in volume of the actual product. Walkers Crisps is possibly the biggest example recently, with the product continuously seeming to be being released in smaller quantities as the years go by.
Now, in the unpopular movement being widely referred to as âshrinkflationâ, global chocolate manufacturer Mars has announced that it has reduced the size of its products by 15%. The products included in the reduction are M&Mâs, Minstrels and Maltesers, the latter of which is undergoing its second reduction in less than six months. However, one positive coming out of this news is that the prices will remain the same, thus not providing a double blow to chocolate lovers around the world.
So what is the reason for the constant reduction in product sizes? The simple answer is the actual cost of production, however fellow chocolate manufacturer Cadbury has put it down to the result of the EU referendum, with the company confirming that once Brexit has occurred they will also be likely to reduce the size of their products.
In an interview with The Guardian, a spokesperson for Mars has said, We have been absorbing rising raw material and operational costs for some time, but the growing pressures means that we canât keep things as they are. Reducing the size of our products is not a decision that we take easily.
The 15% reduction means that a family pack of M&Ms is now 140g, which is 25g lighter than before. However, after one customer noticed the sneaky change to Maltesers at the back end of last year where the weight on the bag didnât match the weight stated on the shelf, we can count ourselves lucky we have been warned about this one!
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