‘Dad invented Freddo. He'd roll over in his grave if he knew what it costs'

Telegraph

18 hours ago

The daughter of the inventor of the Freddo chocolate bar said she is 'disgusted' at how much it now costs.
Leonie Wadin, 74, claimed that since the death of her father, Harry Melbourne, she had not bought one of the frog-shaped confectionaries.
She told Sky News: 'Dad was disgusted with how small it is now and how much they charge for it.
'He'd roll over in his grave if he could see it now. It was a penny chocolate.'
In recent years, the Freddo has become a common yardstick by which the British public track inflation.
It was first sold in the UK in 1973, before being taken off the shelves the following year. In 1994, when the chocolate bar went back on sale, it cost 10p.
Cost of living crisis
The Freddo remained at that price until 2005, when it began increasing by about 2p every year. Today, the confectionery is sold for 30p or 35p, but has been advertised for as much as £1.
Last year, a Labour MP launched a petition calling for the price of the chocolate bar to be brought down after speaking to students at a local school in his constituency. Writing on X, Patrick Hurley said: 'Twenty pence for a Freddo is too much, especially in a cost of living crisis.'
If the price of a Freddo had increased in line with inflation, it would now sell for about 21p.
Ms Wadin's British father invented the Freddo in 1930 while working for an Australian company while just 14.
She said: 'He said children are scared of mice, so why not a frog? Because kids go down to the lake and catch tadpoles.'
Almost 100 years later, her family still takes pride in their connection to the Freddo bar.
Ms Wadin added: 'They're very proud of their great-grandad, they still buy them, they love them. Carry on through every heritage, that's what I want.
Never going to die
'The Freddo has to be passed on, Freddo is never going to die. It will always be there… I just want it all passed down, so that the frog is always in our lives.'
Mondelez International, which owns Cadbury, told Sky News that Freddo had endured popularity across generations since launching in Britain in 1973.
They said: 'Whilst it's important to stress that as a manufacturer we do not set the retail prices for products sold in shops, our manufacturing and supply chain costs have increased significantly over the past 50 years, and Freddo has become more expensive to make.
'We have absorbed these increased costs wherever possible. However, on occasion we have made changes to our list prices or multipack sizes to ensure that we can continue to provide consumers with the Freddo that they love, without compromising on the great taste and quality they expect.'
Earlier this month, the Bank of England warned that rising food prices could push inflation to 4 per cent.
The Monetary Policy Committee said that poor global coffee and cocoa harvests were partly to blame.
The price of food, clothing, air and rail fares all contributed to the rate of inflation reaching 3.6 percent last month – the highest rate since January 2024.