KitKat’s much-loved chocolate bar will not be downsized due to the sharp decline in the value of the pound following the UK’s vote to leave the EU, Nestlé has confirmed.
Nestlé cut its sales targets after sterling’s plunge in October, raising fears that the price of KitKats and other products could increase.
However, speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Dame Fiona Kendrick, the chairman and chief executive officer of Nestlé UK and Ireland, has confirmed KitKat iconic four-fingered chocolate treat will not be reduced to three due to Brexit-related cost.
She said: “Not while I’m sitting here as chairman and CEO. We want to make sure that Nestlé does everything it can to try and save costs and to ensure that we absorb as much as possible ourselves.”
Dame Kendrick added that Nestlé, the maker of KitKat and Quality Street chocolates, would manage costs responsibly and look after “well-loved” brands.
Brands have been quietly shrinking the size of bars and packets because the ingredients to make chocolate are getting more expensive.
Mondelez International came under fire by increasing the gap between the peaks as a UK-only cost-saving measure to reduce the weight of its Toblerone bars.
The company reduced 400g bars to 360g and 170g bars to 150g; however, it insisted Brexit was not to blame.
Many customers have criticised the downsize and blamed it on the UK’s decision to leave the EU.
In another chocolate tragedy Mars, which owns the Maltesers brand, reduced its pouch weight by 15 per cent.
Mars said rising costs mean it had to make the unenviable decision between increasing its prices or reducing the weight of its Maltesers grab packs.
In November the Bank of England projected consumer price inflation rising to around 2.75 per cent in 2018, due to the slump in the pound, before falling back to 2.5 per cent in 2019.
