The Toblerone gaps

Toblerone is a Swiss chocolate bar: milk chocolate with honey and almond nougat, moulded into a row of triangular peaks inside a triangular box. In 2016, British shoppers opened their bars and found that some of the peaks had gone.

What changed

In 2016, the 400 g and 170 g Toblerone bars sold in the United Kingdom were redesigned. Two peaks were removed and the gaps between the remaining peaks were made much wider. That cut the weight of the bars by about 10%, to 360 g and 150 g. The box stayed the same size and so did the price. Other sizes were not affected.

The change reduced the cost of making the bars. For shoppers, it meant paying the same for less chocolate, in a box that looked exactly the same from the outside.

The outcry

The reaction was loud. Photographs of the gappy bars spread quickly, and one member of the Scottish Parliament called for government action over the change. The new bars became a symbol of shrinkflation, the practice of shrinking products instead of raising prices. See shrinkflation: why sweets keep getting smaller.

Poundland's Twin Peaks

In July 2017 the discount chain Poundland joined in, launching its own version of the bar called Twin Peaks, which was bigger than the slimmed down Toblerone.

The U turn

In 2018 Toblerone went back to its original shape, and the 170 g bar was replaced by a 200 g bar.

Goodbye, Matterhorn

The peaks are said to have been inspired by the Matterhorn, and for years a silhouette of the mountain appeared on the packaging. Toblerone was made only in Bern, Switzerland, until 2022, when some production began in Bratislava, Slovakia. Under Swiss rules introduced in 2017, products that are not made in Switzerland cannot use Swiss images, so bars made in Slovakia are labelled created in Switzerland and the Matterhorn was replaced by a more general mountain logo. In April 2025 Mondelez announced a 65 million Swiss franc investment in the Bern factory, where around 90% of Toblerone is still made, and said bars made there would carry the Swiss flag.

Who owns Toblerone?

Toblerone was created in Bern in 1908, when Emil Baumann, cousin of the chocolate maker Theodor Tobler, came up with the recipe of milk chocolate with nougat, almonds and honey. The company was independent until 1970. It then became part of Jacobs Suchard, and later Kraft Foods, now Mondelez International, which also owns Cadbury. See Theodor Tobler and Toblerone.

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