Toblerone is reverting to its traditional shape after an outcry over a move to widen the gaps between the triangles – and push though a huge price rise at the same time.
The 150g bar was reduced from 170g in 2016 as a way to keep prices steady at about £1 a bar. The gappy new version was likened to a bicycle rack.
That bar is now being replaced with a new version weighing 33% more, but the price could rise by more than 200%.
One retailing source said that the new 200g bar’s recommended selling price is £3.09, although big supermarkets and large retail chains will be able to sell the bars on promotion at £2-£2.50. The source described the change as a “backdoor price hike on shoppers”.
At the time of the 2016 change Glenn Caton, president of the northern Europe division of Toblerone’s parent company Mondelez, said that the wider gaps were only a “short-term solution” and “not the right thing for the long term because of the iconic nature of the product”.
A Mondelez spokesperson said: “We’re always reviewing our range to make sure we provide great quality Swiss chocolate in formats we know our fans love. The 150g Toblerone is no longer being manufactured and therefore availability of the bar depends on how much stock an individual retailer is carrying. But 100g and 360g size bars will still be available.”
The change in shape and price, first reported by The Grocer trade journal, means that Poundland will no longer stock the bars. Toblerones are the discount chain’s most popular product and it sold 12m of them last year. Poundland said that stocks would run low within weeks.
The discounter said it would respond by bringing back a redesigned version of Twin Peaks, its Toblerone copycat bar, at the end of the summer. Poundland sold half a million of the lookalikes earlier this year but has been forced to redesign it after a legal battle with the Swiss original’s owners.
Chocolate makers began tweaking the size of chocolate bars two years ago after a surge in the price of cocoa. While prices fell in 2017, Carlos Mera, a commodity analyst at Rabobank, said the cost of cocoa had risen 23% in the past year to more than £17 per kg. He said the commodity had surged in recent months because of a crackdown on illegal plantations in Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa grower, as well as increased demand for chocolate around the world.
“Globally, chocolate consumption, especially that with high cocoa content, which is regarded as healthier, is up,” he said.