Coca-Cola is to cut the size of a 1.75l Classic bottle to 1.5l and put up the price by 20p in March, because of the introduction of a sugar tax on soft drinks from April this year.
As the company has no plans to change the Coca-Cola Classic recipe, which contains 10.6g of sugar per 100ml, it will be subject to a tax of 24p per litre.
Speaking to BBC Newsnight, a Cola-Cola spokesman conceded the increase in price for cans may be passed on to wholesalers.
The amount of sugar used in Sprite, Fanta, and Dr Pepper – all owned by Coca-Cola – has been reduced – with the new version of Fanta, introduced last year, containing 33% less sugar.
The sugar tax was announced in March 2016, by the then Chancellor George Osborne, in an attempt to tackle rising obesity among children in the UK.
From April, soft drinks manufacturers will be taxed at 18p per litre on drinks containing 5g of sugar or more per 100ml, or 24p per litre if the drink has more than 8g of sugar per 100ml.
It is estimated, the tax will raise £520m a year – to be spent on funding sport in primary schools. The tax will apply to one in five soft drinks sold in the UK.