Guess who’s back? Back again? No it’s not the real Slim Shady, but the OG flavour of Pizza Shapes – after the public of Australia pretty much strong-armed Arnott’s into reviving the Aussie food icon.
Five months after the biscuit tycoon decided to bring in a heap of revamped Shapes flavours – leaving Aussies to vote with their wallets and leave shelves upon shelves of the stuff untouched in supermarkets – they’ve finally realised the error of their ways.
“Aussies have clearly shown us the love they have for Original Pizza Shapes and we’re happy to announce the product will be returning to shelves over the coming weeks,” the company said in a statement.
At the time of the flavour change, other top selling flavours including Original BBQ, Chicken Crimpy and Savoury were retained in their original form, but the OG Pizza flavour was unceremoniously dumped for reasons that we may never understand.
Global Communications Manager for Arnott’s Nicky Thompson reckons that sales over the new Arnott’s range had been “mixed,” as News Corp reports.
“While we have seen small declines on some flavours, by and large, most Aussies are happily buying the new Shapes range,” she says.
The changes that were made in April were made “with the best intentions,” she continues, and in response to feedback that “Shapes-lovers wanted more flavour” –
– she goes on to say that abandoning the new flavours altogether was still a possibility, but denies that the decision to abandon a number of the old flavours was a blunder on Arnotts’ behalf.
“No, I wouldn’t say that it was a huge mistake. We’re actually selling more BBQ in its entirety now with both variants available, so we see it as a sales opportunity,” says Thompson. “But there’s no denying some consumers are not happy with the changes we’ve made.”
Regardless of the company’s intentions, there’s one undeniable fact to have come from this whole saga. Democracy works, even if it’s not politically-charged.
