Easter: Another reason to get eggsercised…

If anyone had hoped Easter would provide some respite from the misery of the cost of living crisis in the UK, then they were sadly mistaken. 

It’s not just the cost of milk that’s gone up since in the last year, but much loved chocolate Easter eggs too. And, in some cases, by a lot.

But if chocolate inflation over the same period has grown by 12.6%, what is compelling Easter egg suppliers to push their prices multiple times higher?

Inflation has affected more than just the cost of chocolate, obviously. Labour costs, energy costs, distribution costs etc., all add up and place pressure on companies to pass the burden onto consumers.

But this is a risky play. At some point, a consumer will just refuse to buy and/or find a cheaper alternative. It’s just an Easter egg after all.

So why do it? In this case, the biggest hikes have come from manufacturers of higher-end Easter eggs – Lindt, being a good example. It seems reasonable to assume their customer base can absorb the price hike more easily.

This could explain why suppliers of more mainstream chocolate eggs, such as Mars, Twix and Smarties have opted to go down another route…. Making their eggs smaller!

For more price sensitive customers, a 60% jump in the cost of an Easter egg might be an obvious turn off. It’s an age-old trick – keep the price the same or similar, but reduce what you sell.

Are manufacturers gambling their customer won’t study the weight of a 2023 version of an Easter egg compared to 2024? Very likely. Who has the time and… err… egglination for that?

(flare would like to apologise for all the awful the egg-related puns within this article.)

The data and findings shown in this article were sourced from Which?