In the history of Cadbury’s Chocolate, the price of one item has come under the spotlight more than any other.
Once just 10p, a Freddo can nowadays set you back 30p or more.
The humble frog-shaped chocolate bar has been hit by another price change – this time to its multipacks.
Cadbury Dairy Milk has reduced its multipack by 20%, while the shelf price has stayed the same.
The Freddo 5x18g and Freddo Caramel 5×19.5g packs have now been replaced by 4x18g and 4×19.5g packs respectively, according to The Grocer.
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But the price remains the same, at £1.40 each.
The change has been noted at Tesco, where the five packs disappeared earlier this month, only to reappear as four packs.
Morrisons are selling the old five packs and new four packs, both at £1.40.
Sainsbury’s are still flogging the old multipacks while they are out of stock in Asda.
Cadbury’s owner Mondelez confirmed the weight of the multipacks has taken a hit due to ‘significant higher input costs’.
In a statement to The Grocer, they said the cost of crucial ingredients such as cocoa and dairy had gone up considerably.
They added: ‘Meanwhile, other costs like energy and transport, also remain high.
‘This means that our products continue to be much more expensive to make and while we have absorbed these costs where possible, we still face considerable challenges.
‘As a result of this difficult environment, we have had to make the decision to slightly reduce the weight of our Cadbury Dairy Milk Freddo multipacks so that we can continue to provide consumers with the brands they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect.’
Cadbury has made similar changes to other multipacks.
In March, Twirl packs shrunk from 10×21.5g a piece to 9×21.5g.
Did you know…
The Freddo bar was actually first invented and sold by MacRobertson’s, an Australian confectionery company. It was desinged in 1930 by an 18-year-old named Harry Melbourne, and it was sold as part of the children’s range.
Freddo frogs came in four varities back then, milk chocolate, white chocolate, half milk and half white chocolate, and milk chocolate with peanuts.
The frog-shaped chocolate bar became part of the Cadbury range in 1967 when Cadbury bought MacRobertson’s.
However, the chocolate treat didn’t launch in the UK until 1973. They were sold for a few years before production was stopped in 1979.
15 years later, in 1994, Freddo made its return to shops, and a caramel-filled version known as Taz, was also launched at the same time.
In the 90s Freddo bars were sold for 10p and this price remained in place until 2005 when it started to increase.
While Freddo price have been going up and up and up – at roughly 2p a year – they do sometimes come back down.
Sainsbury’s lowered the price of the frog back down to 10p for Nectar customers to celebrate Cadbury’s 200th anniversary.
The supermarket chain typically sells a Freddo for 40p, whereas Tesco sells stand alone Freddo’s for 30p.
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