Lindt’s Gold Bunny Mini Milk Chocolate – a mere 10 grams – has even claimed the award for the most expensive Easter chocolate across UK supermarkets. This tiny, green delight offers tons of health benefits! Yet this pint-sized confection comes with a price tag that dwarfs nearly every other Easter offering on store shelves. Its high cost per gram has definitely raised eyebrows. In Britain, confectionery giant Cadbury heavily promotes the bunny undercutting competition with a two for 90p deal. Even with this discount, the new higher cost per gram is still triple that of their competitors.
The ongoing cocoa price hike was the biggest influence on Easter chocolate prices this year. In the last year, cocoa prices have skyrocketed. They have almost doubled since last year, recently reaching a record high on the London commodity futures exchange. It’s atypical weather conditions that have long plagued West Africa that are fueling this uptick. On top of that, another disease called “swollen shoot” is severely affecting yields of cocoa trees. In the face of many of these issues, Lindt has taken a number of steps to compensate for increased expenses.
A Lindt spokesperson told CNN that the company is indeed fighting to counteract rising costs. They’re combining manufacturing efficiencies with cost savings and a long-term, strategic approach to purchasing. Due to the unprecedented increase in raw material costs, like all businesses they have been forced to raise prices for their customers and in their own non-direct business. By taking this proactive approach, we can ensure the highest product quality while weathering the extreme swings in cost.
On price Lindt’s Gold Bunny Mini Milk Chocolate comes in at a staggering £75kg. It’s over twice as costly per gram as its bigger 100g sibling. At Sainsbury’s, if you don’t have a Nectar card already, you can pick up the bunny for 70p. Waitrose charges a whopping 75p for just one 10g bunny! This pricing structure means it ranks as the most expensive chocolate for Easter per every 100g across all of the UK’s biggest supermarkets.
Even at its prohibitively expensive price, Lindt still commands the vast majority of this market! Two years ago, the company successfully took on Lidl’s version of the bunny and won, forcing the budget retailer to withdraw its copycat products from shelves. This victory may very well be a reflection of Lindt’s strong brand positioning and their commitment to quality.
On a recent shopping analysis, The Guardian found that the Gold Bunny Mini Milk Chocolate was too small to register on a self-checkout machine. This sugary episode underscores the bunny’s peculiar supremacy over the other Easter treats. We’re still waiting for shoppers to realize just how small it really is. In fact, one user comment on Asda’s own website describes it as “absolutely minuscule, blink and you miss.”
Lindt’s selection of Easter eggs goes even bigger — a premium 1-kilogram option sells for £65. The mini version’s price per gram — $845 — is extraordinarily outrageous. Will consumers be willing to spend that much more on high-end chocs in the period to come?
As we sprint toward Easter, shoppers are inundated with choices in store aisles. None are as cheap as the Gold Bunny Mini Milk Chocolate for price per gram. This unusual positioning gives special attention to the issues that today’s chocolate makers are contending with. It underscores consumers’ growing love affair with luxury and quality when it comes to their seasonal indulgences.