Consumers claimed they were “distressed” and “felt cheated” after Mondelēz announced plans to increase spaces between ridges, on the Toblerone Facebook page. The company has since revealed the chocolate bar’s weight would be reduced too – 400g bars would become 360g, and 170g bars would become 150g.
‘Distressed’ and ‘felt cheated’
The chocolate manufacturer wrote: “Toblerone remains one of the best value and most delicious Swiss chocolate products in the market. This is because we always work hard to ensure we offer value for money for our consumers, but like many other companies, we are experiencing higher costs for numerous ingredients.
“We carry these costs for as long as possible, but to ensure Toblerone remains on-shelf, is affordable and retains the triangular shape, we have had to reduce the weight of just two of our bars in the UK, from the wider range of Toblerone products.”
The decision prompted questions from consumers, including “Why not just increase the price?” and “Why couldn’t you just lose a triangle at the end or make the triangles smaller?”. Mondelēz said it had to choose between changing the shape of the bar and raising the price.
‘Why not just increase the price?’
“We chose to change the shape to keep the product affordable for our customers, and it enables us to keep offering a great value product,” the firm said.
Meanwhile, several food and drink manufacturers have announced increased product prices as a result of increased costs from the weak pound. Unilever raised the price of Marmite by 10%, PepsiCo increased prices 10% for its Walkers brand and Nomad raised prices 12% for Birds Eye products.
Consumer Facebook comments on Toblerone’s shape change
- Karie Bala: “Shame on you, Toblerone.”
- Andrew Hack: “Feel cheated never buy another toblerone, switch to something else.”
- Greg Flucker: “Mondelēz has consistently reduced the size of every one of its products including Cadbury in the UK. Quite frankly you’re horrendously greedy. This is the final straw.”
- Tom Lawrence: “Toblerone, I’m not being funny, but as a lifelong fan I’m disappointed – I wouldn’t go so far as to say devastated, but I’m close.”
- Dan Rickwood: “I am one of your biggest fans and love your chocolate, but I bought a 150g Toblerone earlier only to be left upset, disappointed and a little distressed! In fact I felt cheated on a tad in the way that they are now spaced out so much losing out on Toblerone goodness. I'm upset Toblerone. I’m sorry but I really am.”
- Richard Tamerighi: “Just plain dumb changing the trademark shape of your flagship product.”
- Victoria Fraser: “It’s just not the same product. That difficultly of breaking the chocolate, the way it looks before you eat it, the way you count the pieces through the foil. Even if it was half the price, I wouldn't buy it because it's not a Toblerone.
- Jasmine Bailey: “Was totally disappointed and shocked when I purchased a bar a few weeks ago and saw the huge gaps in between the triangles. I thought it was me having a mad moment.”
- Paul Archer: “I am not even remotely happy about this change. Very sad day for confectionery.”
- Jade Currie: “Not to be melodramatic but thanks for ruining Christmas, Mondelēz.”