Andrex? It's soft but not as long as it used to be as shrinkflation

Andrex? It’s soft, strong – but not as long as it used to be as shrinkflation hits Britain’s biggest loo paper brand

• Andrex has trimmed the width and length of each sheet in its Quilts range
• Its rolls used to have 160 sheets but now have 155 thanks to Shrinkflation

Shrinkflation has raided the bathroom again – with Britain’s biggest loo paper brand reducing the size of each sheet.

Andrex had already cut the number of sheets on a toilet roll without changing the price, as other manufacturers have done.

But the company has now also trimmed the width and length of each sheet in the Andrex Quilts range, adding up to a loss of 1.55m (5ft), according to one customer.

Retired teacher Roger Welshman said this would result in ten fewer visits to the loo per roll.

Andrex has also shaved a few millimetres off the width of the sheets in its Classic Clean and Gentle Clean ranges.

Andrex had already cut the number of sheets on a toilet roll without changing the price, as other manufacturers have done, before reducing the size and width of each sheet

READ MORE: HOW SHRINKFLATION CUTS INTO EVERY CORNER OF THE WEEKLY SHOP

Among the many big brands in the dock are Fairy Liquid, Pringles, Lurpak, Cadbury, Whiskas, Andrex, Hellmann’s, McVitie’s, Warburtons, Walkers, Head & Shoulders and Magnum

Mr Welshman, 72, a former Lib Dem councillor on Gloucester City Council, said he discovered the change by chance.

He said: ‘I keep my Andrex Quilt rolls – three of them on top of each other – in a cylindrical container.

‘In the past they would reach the top of the container, but I noticed this was no longer the case and there was now a gap of about 12mm.

‘I suspect most people would not notice the difference on a single toilet roll, but the change was clear to me when they were stacked up.’

He added: ‘They have been sneaky about this because they used to print the dimensions of a single sheet on their packaging, but they no longer do so on the new packs with the smaller versions.

‘Let’s hope they don’t get any smaller or we’ll have to revert to cutting up old newspapers as we saw in the old sitcoms like Steptoe and Son.’

The Andrex Quilts rolls used to have 160 sheets but now have 155, while the width of each sheet has now been cut by 4mm to 99mm and the length by 4mm to 120mm.

The curse of shrinkflation, where products and pack sizes are cut without a corresponding reduction in price, has affected virtually every supermarket aisle.

The manufacturers of everything from biscuits and crisps, to teabags, chocolate bars, nappies, washing up liquid and laundry detergent have used the tactic. Most companies argue it is designed to combat increases in costs.

A recent consumer survey by Barclays found 81 per cent of us are concerned about shrinkflation.

The proportion of people who had noticed changes in products rose from 65 per cent in May to 70 per cent in June, the poll found.

Andrex is made by US firm Kimberley-Clark, which confirmed the changes to its loo roll brands.

A spokesman said: ‘The sheet count and size on Andrex Quilts have been reduced.

‘Although we always try to offset any changes in cost, in this instance it has been necessary to make a small change to our product as part of an ongoing investment into softness and quality.’

The company said the sheet count in Andrex Classic Clean remains at 190 while the figure in Andrex Gentle Clean is unchanged at 170. However, it confirmed that the width has been reduced to 99mm.

The firm would not give the previous width, but said: ‘We have also harmonised the roll width across our Andrex range at 99mm for efficiency reasons and to incur less paper wastage in the manufacturing process, without impacting consumer experience.’

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