A supermarket managing director has warned that rising food prices will “get worse” as inflation continues to soar. The Bank of England is set to raise interest rates in a bid to tackle inflation when its Monetary Policy Committee meets on Thursday.
Iceland boss Richard Walker warned that food inflation – which rose from 10.6% to 11.6% last month – is going to continue increasing for the foreseeable future. The news will come as a blow to households currently battling with spiralling energy costs and higher mortgage payments.
Walker told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are all seeing it aren’t we? That’s why the price of milk has gone up 50 per cent, not just in our shops, but all our competitors - bread, eggs, all staple items.
“That is worse for those struggling the most. It will get worse as well. I’ve got cost prices currently on the table from big branded suppliers that we haven’t stomached yet as a business let alone have to pass on to our customers.
“So I think it will get worse and coming into winter; we’ve got heating, we’ve got fuel, we’ve got food inflation. Food insecurity is inevitably on the rise and it’s the households with kids who are most at risk.”
The Evening Standard reported Andy Clarke, the former chief executive of Asda, adding: “It’s going to be a tough winter and food inflation is clearly just adding to the burden of families. For retailers, they’re doing everything they can, as are manufacturers, trying to find ways of reducing costs…but I think what we’re seeing is with everything they’re doing, they can’t protect the consumer as much as they’d like to.”
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