Coffee Mate packs have been shrunk by owner Nestlé in a bid to manage soaring costs – but retail prices have risen in some cases.
The old 500g packs have been swapped for new 450g ones, The Grocer can reveal.
At the time of writing, Tesco was selling the new packs at £3 – up from £2.70 for the previous size, according to Assosia data [4 w/e 6 October 2022].
In Asda, meanwhile, 450g packs were being sold at £2.55 – the same price as they had been in their previous iteration.
A spokeswoman for Nestle said: “We are no longer producing the 500g pack and this has been replaced by a 450g pack.”
The fmcg giant was “experiencing significant increases in the cost of raw materials, energy, packaging and transportation, making it more expensive to manufacture our products,” she added.
“To ensure we can maintain the same high quality and delicious taste that consumers know and love, on occasions we do need to make minor adjustments to the weight of our products.
“Final pricing is always at the discretion of individual retailers.”
The Grocer has approached Tesco and Asda for comment.
It comes after shoppers have taken to Twitter over recent days to complain about the absence of Coffee Mate in stores.
The Nestlé spokeswoman said the fmcg giant was “experiencing intermittent Coffee Mate stock shortages due to manufacturing issues” but was “working to rectify this”.
Coffee Mate isn’t the only brand whose products Nestlé is shrinking. As reported by The Grocer, it this year shrunk the size of its Quality Street tubs for the first time since 2019 in a bid to mitigate soaring costs.
No comments yet