Shrinkflation is taking hold in personal care and household, with Simple and Daz falling victim.
Unilever’s Simple has reduced the size of its Pure soap bar for sensitive skin by 20% – replacing the 125g one with a 100g version.
Simple has also replaced its 500ml Refreshing and Nourishing shower gels with 450ml formats – a reduction of 10%.
P&G’s Daz, meanwhile, has shrunk its XXL washing powder by 13% from 4.875kg to 4.225kg – reducing the number of washes per pack from 49 to 40.
Despite the changes to the Daz and Simple lines, shelf prices have remained the same or even increased across Tesco, Morrisons and Asda [Assosia 12 w/e 2 May 2023].
Simple’s new 450ml shower gels now have a shelf price of £1.70 in Tesco – a 14.1% increase from the previous 500ml versions, which had been listed at £1.49.
In Morrisons, shelf prices for both shower gel variants have remained at £3 despite the 10% size reduction.
Simple’s new 4x100g soap bar packs are priced at £2.50 in Morrisons and Tesco – as were the 4x125g iterations.
And Daz’s 4.225kg washing powder pack is listed at £9 in Asda, Tesco and Morrisons – the same price as the old 4.875kg.
Neither the brands nor the retailers had responded to requests for comment as The Grocer went to press.
However, Chris Forbes, CEO of The Cheeky Panda, stressed soaring input costs and inflation were forcing personal care and household brands to “make a choice between keeping a product at the same weight and putting through significant price increases, or reducing weight and keeping price the same”.
It comes as a wealth of big players in food and drink – including McVitie’s Digestives, Cadbury Dairy Milk and Warburtons – have fallen prey to shrinkflation in recent months.
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