Nice profit margins, Unilever, but spare us the ‘sharing the pain’ gloss

Dove, a brand of Unilever. The company has absorbed some rises in input costs – just not most of them. Photograph: Andrew Kelly/Reuters

Greedflation in action? Well, Unilever and its ilk certainly make more plausible corporate culprits than the supermarkets.

Last week the Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) reported on the state of grocery retailing in inflationary times: in short, competition is alive and flourishing, even if the shopkeepers should make their price labels clearer. Average profits in the sector were down 40% in 2022-23 compared with the previous year and average operating margins fell from 3.2% to 1.8%.