Families in the UK are at risk of paying 50% more for smaller Easter eggs this year after Which? found treats from firms including Cadbury, Mars and Terry’s have leapt in price since last year
Families risk paying 50% eggstra for smaller Easter treats this year. Which? found treats from firms including Cadbury, Mars and Terry’s have leapt in price since last year, and some are smaller.
At Lidl, an 80g pouch of Terry’s chocolate orange mini eggs was 99p in the run-up to last Easter. But it is now £1.35 and 70g – a rise of 56% per 100g. At Morrisons, Nestlé’s KitKat Chunky milk chocolate Easter egg stayed at £1.50, but fell in size from 129g to 110g, making it 17% more expensive per 100g. Reena Sewraz, Which? Money and Retail Editor, said: “If you don’t want to pay more for less, it is worth shopping around.”
Which? tracks 20 categories of food and drink at eight supermarkets. Overall, the average price of chocolate is up by 16.5% in a year.
It was blamed on a fall in global cocoa production that has led to record wholesale costs. Mars Wrigley UK said: “We’ve had to adjust some product sizes to minimise changes to list price, ensuring our snacks continue to deliver great quality and affordable value this Easter.”
Nestlé said: “It has sometimes been necessary to make adjustments to the price or weight of some of our products.” Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Ocado and Waitrose did not provide Which? with a comment. Nor did Carambar and Co, which makes Terry’s products.
This comes after a Cadbury’s Creme Egg thief was caught red-handed by police. Deon De Groot, 26, was spotted emptying packs of the chocolate snacks into a duffle bag before leaving the Tesco store without paying last Saturday.
A member of staff flagged down officers in a passing police car who followed De Groot and found he had a large quantity of the eggs concealed in his jacket. He had dropped the duffle bag nearby, and it contained 13 full boxes of Crème Eggs worth more than £220.
On bodycam footage shared by Cambridgeshire Police, arresting officer Guy Cunningham says to De Groot: “Hey, hey, hey, hey. Hands out. Hang on a sec. I’m going to put handcuffs on you, alright. You’re under arrest on suspicion of theft from a shop, alright. Because, I mean, Christ what have you got in there?”
De Groot can be heard replying “Creme eggs”, and when the officer begins unzipping his jacket, the shoplifter offers no resistance apart from saying “It’s all gonna fall out” as PC Cunningham reaches into his jacket.
As the officer pulls out numerous boxes, he adds: “Christ, you’ve really loaded this up.” At Peterborough Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday De Groot admitted theft from a shop.
He was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for a year, and was also banned from entering Cambridgeshire for the next three months.
