Cadbury Dairy Milk: Chocolate change that left customers looking twice

Australian chocolate lovers have been left looking twice after a new Cadbury product hit supermarket shelves this week.

Cadbury Australia has released their signature Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate in a new size, 100 grams.

Their standard-size most popular block is the larger 180 gram product.

READ MORE: Why you may never see this little boy’s face ever again

What is confusing about the new product is that it is the exact same shape and style as the original 180 gram block.

Already, the original 180 gram block had been reduced from 200 grams to 180 grams in 2022. It has also increased in price during this time.

READ MORE: Aussie rocker dies weeks after band’s founding member and manager

What is most confusing about Cadbury’s latest offering is that it costs approximately what the 180 gram block used to cost!

Are you keeping up?

So, Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate is now available in five differently-sized blocks. These are the larger 315 gram blocks, 180 grams, the new 100 grams, and the smaller snack-size blocks available in 75 grams or 50 grams.

But it’s the cost per 100 grams that proves most interesting, allowing customers to see which offers the best value for money.

Unsurprisingly, it’s their largest size that does this.

At both Coles and Woolworths it’s the 315 gram block that proves the most value for money, with customers paying $2.70 per 100 grams, all the way up to $5 per 100 grams for the 50 gram snack-size block.

A spokesperson for Cadbury Australia confirmed to 9honey the impact increasing international cocoa prices have had on their range.

“Severe weather and crop disease in Africa have impacted cocoa production, leading to a global cocoa shortage. This has meant cocoa prices have quadrupled since 2022 to record highs around the world,” they explained.

“Combined with soaring costs for inputs such as electricity, transport and logistics, this has led to rising chocolate prices.”

“As a result, we have made the difficult decision to change some of our pack sizes and pricing while also introducing new options like the 100g Cadbury Dairy Milk block range to offer consumers more choice and to meet changing needs,” Cadbury Australia continued.

“We remain committed to producing great-tasting chocolate in Australia and are working hard to give our customers a range of products to choose from to suit their budget.”

For a daily dose of 9honey, subscribe to our newsletter here.

Peter Resanceff, Consumer Psychologist, Behaviouralist and Brand Strategist said customers getting “a little less for the same price is the lesser of two evils”.

“Shrinkflation is a word that has now entered everyday shopper’s vocabulary – it’s something that shoppers see in most aisles of the supermarket,” he told 9honey.

READ MORE: The best mobile phone plans we’ve spotted this month

“It’s also something that shoppers are keeping a watch-out for when they are shopping. But while they might not like it, the alternative is a price hike and in a cost of living crisis, the idea of getting a little less for the same price is the lesser of two evils.”

The new Kmart home products everyone’s talking about in 2025

The consumer expert spoke of marketers efforts to understand the impact of such changes on customers.

“Marketers do undertake careful market-modelling to understand the effect on sales when deciding that they need to adjust either price, product size or both,” he said.

“In an inflationary economy, price rises based on increased cost of production are inevitable,” he said.

This is particularly true of chocolate products over the past year, with cocoa prices reaching an all-time high in 2024.

“Shrinkflation is less about big manufacturers being sneaky and nasty, and more about them trying to maintain profit levels in a way that is most acceptable to their customers and least likely to result in a drop in overall sales of their product,” Resanceff added.

** Prices are accurate at the time of publication.

FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.