Cadbury admits Creme Egg shrinkage

Posted by in Chocolate News on April 12 2007 | Leave A Comment

Egg Shrinkage ShockerChocablog reader Cliff spotted that Cadbury have updated their web site after the recent fuss about shrinking Creme Eggs. The new text does not specificially state that the eggs have shrunk, only that there is a “broad variety of sizes and flavours of products”.

It’s also a candidate for the worst marketing-speak we’ve heard in years, and seems to imply that consumers actually asked for smaller Creme Eggs:

Why has the size of the egg changed?
As the world’s largest confectionery company, Cadbury Schweppes is committed to developing great-tasting products that you, the consumer loves. Since people’s preferences vary from market to market, so do our products. This is reflected in the broad variety of sizes and flavours of products that we offer our consumers worldwide.

For reference, the same page used to say:

Why has the size of the egg changed?
It hasn’t – you’ve just grown up!

Come on Cadbury/Hershey. Quit the excuses and give the people back their full-sized Creme Eggs!

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Comments On This Post

  1. Great stuff, the line goes from a pleasant, innocent line to a full-blown paragraph full of marketing gibberish. I guess the extra half inch in diameter of chocolate and creme was putting a damper on their profit margin. The stuff still sells like crazy though, greedy buggers.

  2. Chocoholic123

    hey sorry but i really love the cadbury boost bar does anyone think they could review it? also has the fuse been dicontinued because i cant find it anywhere 🙁 lol 🙂

  3. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Yes, it’s unfortunate that the Global Cadbury site didn’t know that the American arm shrunk theirs. But with the way that transportation and fuel costs have risen, I’m not sure what else they could have done but raise the price.

    I think I prefer the smaller size. (Not the mini size, well the mini size for the caramel ones is the best.)

    If there’s anything to be on Hershey’s case about right now, it’s that they’re pushing the FDA to change the acceptable recipe to be called chocolate and possibly take out all the cocoa butter.

  4. Chocoholic123, I have a review of the Boost Bar on my blog. I’m even on Dom’s blogroll here, so he won’t mind me advertising myself around here. Just click ‘The Chocolate Review’!

  5. Chocoholic123

    ooo cool thanks:) 😉

  6. Chocoholic123

    Least the nestle walnut whip hasnt shrunk since ive grown 🙂 😛 😉

  7. BOOST BAR HAS NOW BEEN SHRUNK!!!!

    Bought a Boost (WAS my favourite choc bar) from the work vending machine today, and discovered it was noticeably thinner and shorter! As well as this shrinkage, the texture was lighter than normal and left a funny aftertaste.

    CADBURYS WHY MESS AROUND WITH PRODUCTS YOUR CUSTOMERS LOVE??? DO YOU REALLY THINK WE ARE SO STUPID WE WON’T NOTICE YOU RIPPING US OFF? SORT IT OUT!

    • Linda

      I notice the price did not shrink. I just hate that companies seem to think we are stupid! like shrinking toilet paper sizes, the worst TP offender made the inside cardboard roll bigger! I will never buy that one again. I would much rather just raise prices we are not stupid!

  8. Darin

    As with all companies who shrink their sizes….those who are caught are banned from my household….my wages haven’t changed…fuel costs are down…no excuses now for downsizing except for greed and trying to make up for lost sales revenue…..sorry cadbury…. I will find alternatives for our Easter baskets this year

  9. leesa

    I knew it and now BJ has proved it!!! THANKS!

  10. TL

    As a small business owner, I understand the change in size of the egg. It is usually not greed that forces a company to make a product smaller. It is usually that their operating expenses and ingredient prices have gone up. So, it’s either raise prices or make the egg smaller. In the last year purchasing for my business, nearly EVERYTHING I order has increased in price. This was something I could not have understood until actually experiencing it first hand…from the other side of the argument.

  11. Chad

    Jeanna said it best….”Those Bastards”

  12. Karen

    Since a Cadbury egg is how I celebrate Easter after Lent, I’ll keep buying it. And, as for it getting smaller, fewer calories, right?

  13. That’s exactly what they hope people think. Fact is you are paying the same price for a lower quality and quantity product.

  14. Lorilyn

    The “why” of it is clear. That’s directly related to operation costs. But the real issue here is why did they LIE about it?
    Why not just come out & say, “Ingredients cost more so our products will see an increase too.”
    That’s all. Just play fair. Be honest. The consumers are not idiots, so don’t treat us like we are. I have more respect for the Girl Scouts announcing the need to change their cookie packaging, cookie size or number of cookies in a box becuase of the economy. It doesn’t make me feel cheated. It gives me the option to buy or not & most likely I will. Because they didn’t try to lie about.

  15. FranklyP

    Maybe that should hire George Costanza as their pitch person.

  16. Mary B

    They actually taste different too! They are smaller and perhaps they have done, what many chocolate manufacturers have done, stopped using cocoa in exchange for corn syrup, as it is much less expensive. My favorite easter past time-what I wait for all year-crushed. Thanks Cadbury.

  17. Melanie M

    Dear Cadbury,

    Thank you for ruining my life! – Signed, The Egg Hater.

    Mary…You are right. They did something different. The chocolate was thicker and melted better in my mouth. The ooey gooey goodness used to make a mess. It is thicker now. This is utter blasphemy. I don’t care if things cost more today. I would pay the extra money to get what I think I am supposed to get. It is not like I sit around eating a plethora of eggs. It is a treat. I enojoy it…I savor it…I don’t care about the calories…IT IS A TREAT. But now I sit and stare at the shinny wrapper and think about yester-year. Hmmmpfff…R.I.P., old skool Cadbury Egg. Know that you are missed

  18. May I suggest everyone emails Cadburys with complaints, as I have done – and state these complaints in no uncertain terms – no pussy footing around.

    The more negative feedback they recieve from customers the more likely they are to listen and change, whereas if people keep meekly buying the product and making do with the inferior and accept getting ripped off then they will only be encouraged to do it all the more! COMPLAIN DIRECT TO THE COMPANY!

  19. Dom (Chocablog Staff)

    For reference, it’s worth noting that I wrote this article 2 years ago, and that Creme Eggs are different around the world anyway.

    AngryConsumer is right though. If you’ve got a problem, you’re far better off writing to the company directly.

  20. bree

    ok. So i am FUMING!!!!! I am a major Creme Egg Fan!! (Well I was!!!)I would have PREFERED a price rise, rather than the ‘shrinkage’. This is disgraceful!!!!!! I buy approx 100 eggs (so i can eat them over the entire year) during the Easter period. But not happy at all that they are SMALLER and I SWEAR they have changed the ingredients also…. (tastes different.. Not as good…)
    SO HEAR THIS CADBURY- ‘I WILL NOT BE BUYING YOUR CREME EGGS TILL THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL SIZE!!!!!!’
    You are not gonna rip me off!!!!!
    PS; DOM, I will be writing to Cadbury!!!!
    Absubloute disgrace!!!!

  21. Jayne

    This is the reply I after emailing them about their recent bar size shrinkage.

    ‘Thank you for taking the time to contact us regarding the recent weight changes in some of our products.

    As you may be aware, commodity costs for many manufacturers are increasing
    significantly to unprecedented levels. Over the past twelve months, the
    cost of cocoa and sugar
    has already risen by an average of 8%. These cost increases are out of
    Cadbury’s control.

    To ensure we are able to be price competitive and continue to meet market
    and consumer needs we have reduced product size.

    The quality of our products is of the utmost importance as is your
    continued satisfaction. Therefore your comments have been forwarded onto
    our Marketing Personnel for their consideration.

    Once again, thank you for contacting us on this occasion and if you have
    further enquiries regarding our products, please don’t hesitate to contact
    us again.

    Kind regards
    CADBURY PTY LTD’

  22. Paul Foghurt, III

    The nature of the egg is to shrink. Anger, passion… These are excuses. Allow yourself to break through the shell, and witness the glory of your shadow.

  23. I actually was glad when I realised the Creme Eggs were smaller because one whole one of the old size always made me feel sick. To avoid this, I was prone to balancing half eaten eggs in the fragments of foil and trying to eat them in a way that would allow the chocolate to contain the goo until I returned.

    Having said all that, my dislike of milk chocolate grows with every passing day and this past Easter, while I welcomed the smaller egg, I realised I just don’t like them anymore. In New Zealand a few years ago we went to the Cadbury factory and I bought a mint egg with DARK chocolate and it was indeed heavenly and I think that’s what finally soured my relationship with the standard Creme Egg.

  24. Emma hughes

    You know from inside sources

    no just someone I know who works in Cadbury’s when they changed the roses individual wrappers they decreased the sweet size but increased the packaging…sneaky sneaky

    This has happened with HB too

    If they make a product 1/10 smaller thats one extra item they make profit on out of every ten for nothing

  25. IanV

    Theres one good reason why their slogan the size of the creme egg hasnt changed, youve just grown up, doesnt hold water.
    If that were the case we would all think regular hens eggs have gotten smaller too as we got older, I cant speak for anyone else but to me, hens eggs are about the same size as they have always been,Cadbury Creme Eggs are a lot smaller. Confectionary companies have been doing this for years in case no one else has noticed the little trick I have spotted them doing several times over the years is they bring out a new “King Size” bar a lot bigger than the regular one and costing a lot more, then over time they reduce the size of the regular one and at the same time reduce the size of the king size one until the regular one is so small no one buys it then they phase out the regular one and the now reduced size “king Size one is now the regular one at the same much higher price it was at when it really was “king Size.”

  26. IanV! Thanks for your insight on the King Size bars! I will be keeping my eyes peeled for this sort of crap!

  27. IanV

    Simone, take a look at the size of the regular snickers bar, how small it has got, I’m sure a regular snickers was never so small as it is right now.

  28. Eoz

    I actually don’t mind the smaller sized egg. My only complaint with them before was that they were TOO big. But I don’t like the mini eggs because I get carried away and eat too many. So this is perfect for me.

    Yay Easter!

  29. m atcheson

    Just reading about the creme egg shrinkage – well, we have one unopened from 1977 (it was for our grandmother, and we put it in a small decorative egg shaped tin for her easter gift – sadly she died before we could give it). So that is 33 years old! We compared it to the 2009 model and guess what – em , it was the same size – sorry!

    • coco

      Sorry my foot….are you in kahootz with Cadbury? No way is their Easter Creme Egg the same size as they were in 1977…NO WAY!

  30. m atcheson

    ps we live in Northern Ireland

  31. Geez, m atcheson, you don’t suppose they never increased in size in all that time either, do you?

    This world is filled with people making and breaking cases based solely on their own experiences. Apparently your 33 year old egg trumps, the photo in this post, scores of people noticing it and Cadbury admitting it themselves. Thanks for cracking the case! Sheesh.

  32. m atcheson

    What sarcasm Simone, maybe in America or other countries they did shrink, but not in the NOI is all I am saying,
    sheesh jeez and anything else you may care to proffer
    Excuse me, I have other cases to crack – enjoy your smaller creme eggs this year

  33. m atcheson, sorry to be so sarcastic, but instead of concluding with “…perhaps they shrunk in other parts of the world, but at least in Northern Ireland, they appeared to have remained the same.” You just said “sorry” as though you had debunked everything. Otherwise, I found your story of a 33 year old egg quite intriguing as that’s the kind of horror I would expect to find in parents’ house! I’d love to know more about the condition of the egg as I am only 1 year younger than it!

  34. Bethany

    Has Cadbury always used corn syrup in their eggs? I recently bought some thinking they’d be the same as last year’s with no corn syrup, but after eating one I got a headache all day, which is an indication that there is corn syrup in there because I’m ALLERGIC! I’m appalled.. What kind of a land do we live in where we use cheaply modified foods that cause cancer and heart disease?? Not to mention diabetes and all of our fat victims out there (not only the humans but the cows, too. Yes, we’re being pumped with the same crap).. If Cadbury wants to make something delicious they’d stop using that corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup and make a REAL candy, with REAL sugar!

  35. Eoz

    What kind of a land do we live in? One where people want to pay the lowest price possible. For every one person like you who would pay extra for real sugar, there are a hundred more who want to pay the absolute least amount possible. That’s why TVs no longer come with any kind of installation or accessories and why they don’t last very long.

  36. Dom (Chocablog Staff)

    The ingredients used in Cadbury product vary from country to country. e.g. the chocolate in the UK is made with vegetable oil which is banned in some countries.

    I don’t know about about the filling, but it’s worth remembering that the Creme Egg is made under license by Hershey in the US. If you may be allergic to an ingredient, you should probably approach them directly and ask.

  37. RAGEAGAINSTTHEEGG

    BOYCOTT> AND THEY ARE STILL 40/50p EACH> OUTRAGE>

  38. RAGEGIRL

    ARRRRGGG!!!!1!

    I eat my cream eggs with a tea-spoon (yes, a spoon) and they used to fit perfectly! I could, in one swift movement get most of the cream out and I would nom up that sh*t, BUT NOW! NOW ITS TOO SMALL FOR MY F’ING SPOONS!

    *shakes fist* You will pay Cadbury, you will pay.

  39. EggHead

    Ever since Hershies aggressively took over Cadbury’s and sacked all the loyal british staff I’ve been trying to work out what this will mean for me. I think it’d disgraceful how they have acted and sets a precident for bad ethics from large companies.

    I think I need to start pissing off all the shareholders and remind them of the misery they’ve caused real people.

    And don’t even get me started on the size of good being shrunk without telling us! That’s daylight robbery!

    OK so I’m gonna have to boycot Cadbury’s now

  40. patrick lynch

    I am digusted that Cadbury’s have closed their factory in Bristol with loss of 250 jobs and moved all production over to Poland.

    This is bang out of order. I for one will not be purching any of Cadbur’s products again. I strongly advise other people to do the same. Until they guarintee no more jobs losses in the UK

  41. Shalom

    It seems like the cost in changing over factory machinery would negate the savings of using less ingredient. Materials are always an astonishingly low percentage of cost or price.

    BTW, looking at a wrapper right now:

    Net weight: 1.2 ounces (34 grams)
    Contains sugar. Also contains corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup subsequent on list. Also contains cocoa butter, but cocoa powder is not listed, they are two different things, both from cocoa bean.
    Made in Canada for Hershey Co. Hershey, Pennsylvania.
    For questions or concerns call 1-800-468-1714

    • Love that you’ve put the contact info here. 🙂 That way those of us who’ve noticed can call and bombard their butts! *chuckle* And this year, in 2012, the eggs seem even smaller than they did last year. While I can easily believe that my derriere has gotten bigger, I have a hard time believe that my TONGUE has. I nibble these awesome, yearly treats, and now that they’re back on the market for this upcoming Easter, I snagged a few. When I saw them in the store they seemed even smaller than last year’s.. and upon cracking one open, I really do think they’re smaller again. Why bother to keep making ’em smaller? Why not just make a regular and a “pint size” egg or something, and let people choose?

      Silly Cadbury/Hershey. Raising your prices while vastly reducing your product size might be good business, but it suuure is bad form..! 😛

      Now where can we get the real, full-size eggs? Might anybody know..?

  42. Lydia

    I was looking up changes to the Creme Egg recipe and came across this blog about the reduced size! I noticed it years ago too!

    Has anybody else also noticed that in the last year or so, the taste of the filling has been altered? It tastes more like the fondant icing on wedding cakes. I prefer the old taste, it was sweeter and different to anything else I’ve ever tasted. Creme eggs have been a favourite of mine for years, but I’m not as keen on them now they have changed the recipe for the filling and shrunk the eggs!

    Another unhappy Creme Egg fan!!!

  43. Natalie Sarah Thomas

    Not only have they shrunk, they are being advertised on the telly for 50p, yet via the local newsagents in Ruislip Gardens on the West End Road, they are being retailed for 55p and 65p. Day light robbery, no wonder single mothers struggle and we are in a recession. Do they have permission to do this, I wonder….?

    The pennies make the pounds uhhh huh

  44. Minnie McMannaman

    Buy your eggs in bulk Natalie Sarah Thomas…I don’t mean like Bree does (as explained in their post of March 20th 2009 above), who is obviously slightly mad, I mean go to your local supermarket and buy a multi-pack, thus circumventing your greedy (even greedier than Cadburys) corner shop shyster and getting the eggs at a cheaper price per egg.
    I have other chocolate related money saving tips too if you are interested?

  45. t0nito

    Until this year I haven’t eaten a creme egg in 21 years because they are not available here in Portugal, a cousin of mine kindly sent some from Canada, and even though it has been many years, the first thing that popped in my mind was that they seemed a lot smaller than I remember, also the cream isn’t gooey as I remember.

    I was smaller, but from what I remember, the creme egg was more or less the size of a Kinder Surprise Egg.

  46. It’s an issue of global confusion – in the UK the Eggs are egg’actly the same size they’ve been for years and years, but in the US (as per the video clip) they were made notably smaller to be sold at a lower price.

    In the UK you get lovely stories like this (from above):

    m atcheson
    January 25, 2010 at 10:12pm
    Just reading about the creme egg shrinkage – well, we have one unopened from 1977 (it was for our grandmother, and we put it in a small decorative egg shaped tin for her easter gift – sadly she died before we could give it). So that is 33 years old! We compared it to the 2009 model and guess what – em , it was the same size – sorry!

  47. funky gal

    not only are they smaller, I bought the 6 pack from Tesco and got home only to open them and find 5 inside, so check people, I am so disappointed.

  48. Jenny

    I work in retail and until 2013 the egg in the Uk has been about the same size unfortunatly this year they have virtually halved the size for what they now cost each it is total greed I, m sick of seeing the brainwashed defending these corporations wake up and smell the bull.

  49. I have been an animal rights activist for many years. Do you guys know what those Creme Egg Hens have to put up with? Have you any idea what their living conditions are? They used to run free range round Bristol but are now battery farmed in a suburb of Krakow, and that’s why those Polish eggs are layed smaller. They used to have a golden syrupy yolk, now you can’t taste them at all. Check out my site for secret footage of the Polish Creme Egg Factory.

  50. Has anyone seen the Alien movie poster with the creme egg in it? Them ones was huge. 1980. Burnt your tongue off those ones did.

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