Cadbury's Creme Eggs sales and satisfaction falls after controversial recipe change

Customer dissatisfaction has had a significant impact on sales since Mondelez changed recipe in 2015

Cadbury's Creme Eggs (PA)

Satisfaction with Cadbury Creme Eggs has fallen dramatically among consumers since the product's controversial recipe change, new figures have shown.

Mondelez announced in January 2015 it would no longer be making the treat with Dairy Milk, but instead with “standard cocoa mix chocolate”.

Many consumers were appalled at the news and a survey by UK pollster YouGov found that, whereas customer satisfaction with Creme Eggs has previously increased in the run-up to Easter, the reverse has happened since 2015.

Between 1 January and 21 March 2014, the percentage of satisfied customers increased by 3.2 per cent. But during the same period in 2015, satisfaction fell by 15.4 per cent.

(YouGov)

This year the decline has reduced to 9.6 per cent, but only because just 17.8 per cent of those polled said they were satisfied customers in January.

This in turn has directly affected sales of the product, and of those polled the number of people purchasing a Creme Egg has decreased from 11 per cent in March 2014 to 9 per cent in March 2016.

(YouGov)

Given the sheer volume of Creme Eggs sold - Mondelez says it produces 200 million per year for UK consumption alone, the equivalent of 3.5 eggs for person in Britain – this has had a considerable financial impact.

In January this year, analysis by IRI for the Grocer found Creme Eggs sales had slumped by £6 million in the past year.

However, Cadbury’s is standing by the recipe change.

A spokeswoman for the firm said: "The fundamentals of the Cadbury Creme Egg remain exactly the same. It is simply not the case that Creme Egg has always been made with Cadbury Dairy Milk.

"The majority of our egg-lovers prefer the traditional taste of Cadbury chocolate in their Cadbury Creme Egg, so we are proud to be sticking with our classic, fabulous recipe.”