Iceland supermarkets lead the way for litre-based sizes of own-brand milk

So far, Iceland seems to be the only major British supermarket that is selling own-brand milk and all other milk brands in litre-based sizes. Why haven’t any other major supermarkets followed suit by dropping pint-based milk sizes?

I recently went to an Iceland supermarket and was impressed to see no pint-based milk containers there. All their own-brand milk containers are sold in litre-based sizes. Here are the one-litre sizes for their own-brand skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole milk containers:

Their own-brand skimmed, semi-skimmed and whole milk is also available in two-litre and three-litre sizes.

Why have pint-based sizes for supermarkets’ own-brand milk products persisted for so long? Could it be something to do with the exemption for one-pint glass bottles delivered to houses by milkmen in the olden days? These days, all milk brands except the supermarket brands tend to come in rational litre-based sizes. So, pint sizes for supermarket milk brands are an anomaly.

18 thoughts on “Iceland supermarkets lead the way for litre-based sizes of own-brand milk”

  1. Very encouraging to see this! 🙂

    As an aside, in the USA all of our labels here say “skim milk”. Looks like over here we still need some lessons in the English language. 😉

    Ezra aka punditgi

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  3. My local Iceland store has been selling the 1-litre and 2-litre sizes since at least February 2024.

    I’ve not seen a 3-litre size or 500 ml size yet though. So their range still looks very muddled, with 1-pint, 1-litre, 2-litre and 6-pint cartons.

    Also, the labelling on Iceland’s 1-pint and 6-pint cartons is clearly illegal. The “1 pint” and “6 pints” supplementary indications are much larger, and more prominent, than the legal declared metric size (which is tucked away in smaller text on the side of the carton). This means that the labelling does not comply with the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations 2006.

    https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2006/659

    8 (3) (f) any supplementary indications in imperial units allowed by section 8(5A) of the 1985 Act shall be expressed in the permitted imperial units with the numerical value expressed in figures followed by the unit of measurement expressed in words or the relevant permitted abbreviation and shall not be more prominent (and in particular the figures and words or abbreviations shall not be larger) than the metric indication;

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  4. I’ve said this before but here it is again. One-Stop was selling weighed groceries in metric in the early 1990s – several years became compulsory. Nowadays, One-Stop is selling all of its milk in metric size cartons.

    One-Stop is, of course, a local convenience store – not a full-blown supermarket. It is a subsidiary of Tesco. It seems that Tesco uses it to pilot metrication schemes, so this could mean that we’ll see metric milk cartons in Tesco before long.

    I have also seen metric cartons of milk in Morrisons and Waitrose, but these are speciality brands, not supermarket own-brands.

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  5. I guess I should not be surprised that a Tory government never wanted to enforce the Weights and Measures Act when it comes to supplementary indications.

    Who in the Labour government can be pinged to follow up with Iceland?

    Ezra aka punditgi

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  7. Most other supermarkets have sold own-brand milk in round metric sizes for some time – but it’s filtered milk. It makes no sense to sell unfiltered milk in carton sizes that aren’t generally used for any other type of packaged goods.

    Asda – 2 L filtered whole milk
    https://groceries.asda.com/product/filtered-milk/asda-british-milk-filtered-whole-2-litres/1000383143730

    Asda – 2 L filtered semi-skimmed milk
    https://groceries.asda.com/product/filtered-milk/asda-british-milk-filtered-semi-skimmed-2-litres/1000383143691

    Tesco – 2 L filtered whole milk
    https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253732988

    Tesco – 2 L filtered semi-skimmed milk
    https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253737115

    Morrisons – 2 L filtered whole milk
    https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-filtered-milk-whole-601252011

    Morrisons – 2 L filtered semi-skimmed milk
    https://groceries.morrisons.com/products/morrisons-filtered-milk-semi-skimmed-601251011

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  8. Back in February, when commenting on the ‘Pints of Champagne’ piece in Metric Views, I referred to Iceland’s switch to litre sizes. I too have been puzzled that the 3-litre container has not yet arrived to replace the 6 pint one.

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  9. Main issue is it’s hard to tell if Iceland’s 3 litre carton of milk is good value or not vs the price typically paid for a 4 pinter elsewhere. Aside from that it’s really no big deal if milk and beer are sold in pints. We’ll always be influenced by US culture so it’s no bad thing to be aware of different units of measure (and yes I know their volume measurements aren’t the same as the UK’s).

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  10. ImperialStormTrooper:

    Since the contents declaration on the “4 pint” milk container states primarily that it contains 2.27 L, it can easily be seen that this amount is 730 mL shy of 3 L. From this one can calculate which of the two is a better price. In most circumstances the 3 L would be a better price seeing that the larger amounts are most often cheaper than smaller amounts to to quantity discounts.

    Also, each shop should have shelf unit price stickers showing the cost per litre and this can be compared from shop to shop.

    It is a big deal if products are sold in non-standard units as it adds cost and confusion all around due to not having a single unit standard. The litre is the standard that only needs to exist. I’m sure you can’t give one good reason as to why the pint and other non-standard units need to cling to life.

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  11. ImperialStormTrooper:

    Why is milk the only dairy product still labelled in imperial units? Does it make any sense to have mixed units of measurement on the same shelf? US culture has nothing to do with it. We are influenced by things from many cultures. As for beer being sold in pints, it is impossible to compare value for money with beer sold in 500 ml cans (or any other metric quantities), at least not without resorting to a calculator (and even then you have to be quite clever and know a few conversion factors). Is that how commerce should work? That the customer cannot make a simple comparison of value for money across different products and package sizes? That was the point of your original question.

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  12. It will result in Joe Public getting mugged again as per the coinage decimalization scam. Things that cost one – old penny increased in price to half a new penny. This time, I’ll bet we will be getting charged the four pint price for two litres – yet more shrinkflation!

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  13. Phil Mark,

    Can you please explain how “Joe Public” will get mugged if 4 pints (~2.3 L) is reduced to 2 L? Various forms of economic distress affect the prices of all products. Inflation is a normal by-product of the market based economy. This is unavoidable. One solution is to raise prices, the other is to decrease amount of product provided. If shrinkage of the product size is desired over increasing the price, then why not use the opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by metricating the product at the same time?

    This will actually bring on a long term cost savings by standardising milk bottles across many countries and reduce future price rises as well as limiting shrinkflation. But, you don’t care about this, you are just looking for any idiotic excuse to hate the metric system. Well, get over it, the people have chosen the metric system over past unit collections. Metric is here to stay.

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  14. Phil Mark:

    I don’t know who manufactures the 4-pint containers, but the only market in the world for them would be in the UK. Even the USA will not want them as their 2-quart (4-pint) containers are smaller since their pint is smaller than the old imperial pint. Long-term it isn’t viable for a company to make containers for a market if there is no prospect of growth. If those containers are phased out in favour of a 2-litre container, the milk packers that use that size of container can buy them anywhere in the world. That is how you bring prices down.

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  15. metricnow,

    Where I live, milk only comes in half (1.9 L) and whole (3.8 L) gallons. The stores I shop at don’t do pints nor quarts. Milk is also very local and comes from local dairies. A couple of decades ago, someone tried to introduce a 3 L size, but they priced is so high, it never took off.

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  16. Daniel:

    So a British 4-pint container would fail on two counts to enter the US market: the pint isn’t the same, and you say milk isn’t sold there in two-quart containers. Strengthens my point about there not being a market for these containers anywhere else in the world. Milk is produced and sold locally just about everywhere it is sold. But there must be a worldwide market for the cartons and containers.

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  17. I doubt very much that the market for plastic milk bottles is world-wide. Platic milk bottles have a very low value per unit volume which means that they are expensive to transport as they are s bulky. It is much cheaper to transport the raw materials to a locality close to where the factories that need the bottles are located than it is to transport completed empty plastic bottles as this save transporting loads of fresh air around.

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  18. I have noticed that Poundland sells pasteurised milk only in metric containers. OK, Poundland is not a major supermarket, but, as Tesco tells us, “Every little helps”.

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