Food giant Nestle has announced it has hiked prices of by an average of nearly 10% so far this year as the cost of living crisis rages on.
The company said that its pricing increased by 9.8% overall in the first three months of 2023, with ice cream and pet food seeing some of the biggest hikes. Nestle owns dozens of the bestselling brands in supermarkets, including Aero, KitKat, Smarties, Haagen-Dazs, Quality Street and Nescafe, as well as Bakers, Felix and Purina pet food.
Nestle reported a 5.6% increase in sales during this period equating to £21.2bn, with Purina pet products proving to be the biggest driver of sales. CES Mark Schneider said that the price rises were "responsible" and had "helped to offset the ongoing pressures from two years of cost inflation" - but some shoppers were not impressed by the changes, with one person on Twitter branding the increases "pure greed".
