Mars bar shortage causing gaps on UK supermarket shelves

theguardian.com:

Shoppers looking for Mars bars have been encountering empty shelves and “out of stock” messages on supermarket websites, with some stores warning they are not expecting deliveries for two weeks or more.

When asked about the apparent shortages, one major retailer told the Guardian that “[it] looks like a production issue on Mars’s end may be causing gaps across retailers”.

In response, Mars Wrigley, the company behind Mars, Snickers, Bounty and Twix bars, said it was “experiencing high levels of demand”, but added that it wanted to “reassure the British public that our much-loved brands are still available nationwide”.

It comes a month after the US chocolate manufacturer Hershey warned of shortages, saying the company “will not be able to fully meet consumer demand”.

Nestlé, which makes KitKats and other chocolate brands, has blamed “significant and unprecedented cost inflation” for a 6.5% rise in prices in the first half of this year.

The Guardian visited a handful of Tesco stores in London this week to check availability, and found a mixed picture.

At one store in Walthamstow, north-east London, on 23 August, there was a gap on the shelf where standard single Mars bars should have been, although there were plenty of other chocolate bar brands in stock. When we returned to the same store later in the week, there were no packs of Mars Duo bars either. There was a sticker on an empty shelf saying that the next delivery was expected on 10 September.

At another Tesco in Walthamstow, there were no Mars Duo or Snickers Duo packs left on the shelves at the time of the visit.

A Tesco in Camden, north London, had sold out of Snickers Duo until 29 August, while white chocolate Twix bars were out of stock, with an expected delivery date of