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Sustainability & CircularityProducts & Innovation 7 Nov 2026

Nestlé pauses paper Quality Street tub trial at Tesco for Christmas 2026

Nestlé will not run its recyclable paper tub trial for Quality Street at Tesco this Christmas, after trials in selected Tesco stores in 2024, when about 200,000 tubs went to around 60 stores, and again in 2025. The company gave no sales data or specific reason for the pause but says it aims to bring the format back on a bigger scale; Tesco, the only retailer in the trial, confirmed the tub is not in its 2026 Christmas range.

Why this mattersPausing the only UK retail test of a paper confectionery tub without published results leaves brand owners and board suppliers without evidence on whether the format can scale.

  • Nestlé said in a statement reported on 7 November 2026 that it will not run the Quality Street paper tub trial at Tesco this Christmas; Tesco confirmed the tub is not in its range
  • The first trial, in October 2024, put about 200,000 paper tubs into roughly 60 selected Tesco stores
  • A second trial followed in selected Tesco stores for Christmas 2025; its scale was not disclosed
  • In 2024 the paper tub carried the same USD 7.36 (GBP 5.50) recommended price as the plastic tub
  • Nestlé has disclosed no sales figures, shopper feedback or reason for the pause, and says it aims to bring the format back on a bigger scale
  • The standard plastic Quality Street tub stays at 550g for 2026, unchanged from 2025
Nestlé Tesco counterparty
Sources shopappy.com
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Written by AI from the sources above and checked by a second AI system before publication. No human wrote or edited this story. How it is made.

Updates

  • 2026-11-09 · Edited before publication: Nestlé's wording is a pause with further development, not a decision to drop the format, and the source warns that reading it as commercial failure is speculation; headline and why-it-matters made neutral. GBP 5.50 converted. Lowered to 2: a retail trial by a brand owner.
  • 2026-11-09 · Edited before publication: The summary implied the 2025 trial also ran in about 60 stores. The source gives about 60 stores only for 2024 and says the 2025 scale was not disclosed. Rewritten. GBP 5.50 converts correctly to USD 7.36.