Why Brands Are Switching to Smaller Product Sizes

The food and beverage industry faced immense challenges over the last year. Prior to the pandemic, the supply chain was balanced between grocery stores and restaurants. But when restaurants were essentially closed overnight, brands had to shift resources to focus on their grocer businesses.

To effectively refocus, brands had to further target the end consumer and their wants and needs. This meant finding a balance between single-person households that might be cooking meals for one and the multi-person family households that need larger quantities to feed everyone. Additionally, there was the need to target people who, before March 2020, never cooked at home.

As a result, many brands prioritized re-thinking product sizes to cater to single-person households and new cooks. While all companies have traditional larger product sizes, which are geared towards larger households and are grocery store staples, many also introduced new smaller packaging sizes to offer more options for consumers, like offering a 16-ounce and a 12-ounce bottle of salad dressing.

There are a couple reasons brands have done this. First, a smaller package offers single-person households an option to buy what they need without the fear that it will go bad before consumption. Second, it’s an option for people to try new products on a smaller scale without having to pay higher prices for the larger product size, which may also go to waste if the consumer doesn’t like it. Both open the door for brands to target consumers who might not normally buy their products.

Smaller Product Sizes Helping to Combat Food Waste

Food waste remains one of the biggest concerns across the food and beverage industry, as it is estimated that 1.4 billion tons of food is thrown away annually around the globe. Additionally, food waste has been linked to produce a high volume of greenhouse gas emissions. Brands recognize this as a serious concern and are doing what they can to become more sustainable, including implementing best production practices and helping educate consumers about the need to eliminate food waste.

Smaller products can further help battle this challenge. With smaller product sizes available at the store, a person can buy the correct quantity of ingredients for recipes, or even decrease the quantity if making the meal for fewer people than the recipe calls for. This helps ensure the right amount of product is used when making meals at home, helping to reduce food waste.

The Options Are Limitless

Now, imagine you’re at the grocery store getting ingredients to cook spaghetti. On one side of the aisle are boxes and boxes of pasta from different brands that come in all different shapes and sizes. As a consumer, you’re probably thinking about two things – the price and the amount.

If you’re only shopping for yourself, a smaller, less expensive package might work for you – unless you really like spaghetti and know you will make it again, then you might buy a bigger box. The same can be said for the amount of sauce you will need. If you’re shopping for your family of four, you know you will need a big box of noodles and a big jar of sauce.

With so many options, consumers can find what they need to fit their lifestyle. These changes have and will continue to reduce food waste, as well as meet the demands of consumers.

CCT Helping Brands Meet Consumer Needs

At CCT, we work with companies to ensure that our EEASY Lid meets their needs. No matter the size of the jar or the type of product being filled, we can adjust the manufacturing process to ensure the EEASY Lid is produced to top any jar size needed. So, whether someone is shopping for themself or feeding a family of four, they may soon find the EEASY Lid on any jarred product.