Late Queen’s favourite marmalade maker cuts jar size
The late Queen Elizabeth II’s favoured marmalade has become the latest food brand to fall victim to shrinkflation after its maker cut jar sizes in response to rising costs.
Wilkin & Sons has shrunk its Tiptree marmalade jars from 454g to 340g, blaming the rising cost of energy and raw materials over recent months.
It has reduced the recommended price of the jars for retailers from £2.79 to £2.59 – but despite this cut, shoppers are still paying significantly more per 100g of the marmalade.
The move makes Tiptree the latest in a long list of food brands with smaller yet more expensive products as manufacturers scramble to cope with soaring costs – a practice commonly referred to as ‘shrinkflation’.
A spokesman for Wilkin & Sons said: “We are sorry to have to increase our prices, but the unprecedented pressure on energy and material costs is hitting us very hard. As always, we will do our best to make top quality products at reasonable prices.”
The spokesman added that the company had considered many options for how to price its marmalades and had not taken the decision lightly.
She said: “We were reluctant to offer our marmalades at a price point above £3 and decided to reduce the jar size rather than take the [price] well above the £3 mark for the existing 454g range, as we felt that this was a barrier for many consumers.”
Shrinkflation is not a new trend in food and drink, and has been going on for much of the last decade.
More than 200 consumer products spanning everything from toilet roll to confectionery shrunk in size between 2015 and 2017, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, released in 2019.
However over the last year the pace of shrinkflation has increased as the cost of ingredients, energy and other raw materials has surged.
Prominent examples disclosed by The Telegraph include Mini Cheddars, which made some of its biscuits smaller and less cheesy in January, and Magnum, which cut a whole ice cream from packs of four but kept the price the same.
Supermarkets as well as manufacturers have come under fire for shrinkflation. Grocers are facing claims from farmers that they have been shrinking strawberry punnets in order to manage rapidly rising costs.
Wilkin & Sons’ history dates back hundreds of years. The Wilkin family first started preserving fruit in the nineteenth century, launching the first Tiptree preserves in 1885.
The company celebrated its 125th year of manufacturing in its home county of Essex in 2010.
It has supplied Britain’s monarchs since 1911, and currently holds a royal warrant from the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“We strive to offer top quality products at reasonable prices and felt this reduction in jar size to be the most sensible option to offer consumers a product which they could better afford, at a time when the cost of living for all has risen considerably,” the spokesman said.
