Quality Street trimming down size of Christmas box AGAIN

Quality Street is trimming down the size of its chocolate boxes this Christmas, yet again, from 720g to 650g.

The UK's biggest Christmas confectionery brand is cutting down the size of Christmas tubs and parent company Nestlé is set to reveal that it will be offering more chocolate and less toffee.

As well as a 650g plastic tub, the festive range will include a 1kg tin on sale at most major retailers, a special 800g gold tin available only from Tesco and a jumbo 2kg tin stocked by budget chain Costco.

Ellie Worley, Quality Street’s senior brand manager, said: “2019 is a huge year for Quality Street. We’ve got a new sweet, a new (packaging) design and are developing the brand ahead of the Christmas season.

“As ever, we have Quality Street available in lots of different formats, shapes and sizes this year including the 650g tub and much larger tins for those who want even more to share with friends and family.”

The introduction of 650g tubs follow years of successive weight downsizing described as "shrinkflation".

This is when food manufacturers reduce pack sizes, as ingredient and transport costs rise.

After feedback from shoppers, Nestlé is offering more chocolate, which is more expensive to make, and less toffee as it ditches the toffee deluxe.

The proportion of chocolate sweets in each mixed assortment has risen from 35 per cent to 46 per cent.

But the toffee penny and toffee finger will remain and there will also be a chocolate caramel brownie in a bright teal blue wrapping.

An advent calendar, which was introduced last year, will also be released in Autumn.

Other examples of shrinkflation include Toblerone reducing its size from 200g to 170g in 2010. Also in 2009, Mars reduced the size of their bar from 62.5 grams to 58 grams, while the price remained at 37p.

Last year there was huge controversy when it was announced that Jaffa Cakes' "Christmas yardstick" had reduced in size and was no longer a yard in length. It also remained the same price.

Production at Quality Street’s factory in Halifax, West Yorkshire, is now in 24/7 mode and is cranking out a whopping 12 million individual chocolates in time for Christmas. It packs 85 tins or tubs every minute.