Inflation is one of the biggest concerns now facing governments both globally and in the UK.
Soaring energy costs, supply chain bottlenecks and rising prices in food and drink has pushed the inflation rate in the UK to a 30-year high at 5.4% with the Bank of England expecting this to hit 6% in April - well above its 2% inflation target.
This inflation is now being passed on to consumers with household finances being squeezed across the board.
Yet, separate data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that wage rises for UK workers are failing to keep up with the rise in the cost of living.
Regular pay, which excluded bonuses, decreased by 1% in November in comparison to the same month in the previous year (2020).
Grant Fitzner, chief economist at the ONS, said: “The inflation rate rose again at the end of the year and has not been higher for almost 30 years. Food prices again grew strongly while increases in furniture and clothing also pushed up annual inflation.
“These large rises were slightly offset by petrol prices, which, despite being at record levels, were stable this month, but rose this time last year.”
But, looking beyond these headline-grabbing figures, what are the companies on the ground in Wales actually saying about inflation and what it means for them?
Sterling Southgate Mortgage Advisers
With staff working from home now starting to feel the pinch with rising energy costs, Sterling Southgate Mortgage Brokers has taken the decision to increase wages to maintain its staff levels.
Founder Jonathan Southgate said: “This will affect our profit margins, but if inflationary pressures are impacting staff, they are going to start thinking about where they can get paid more or look at changing jobs. That’s a concern in the back of our minds hence why we’re taking a stance to increase pay.”
The Magor-based firm has taken the decision to absorb these wage rises into the business and take the hit rather than pass on the additional cost to its clients.
But growing inflation is having an impact on the home-mover side of the business, as the cost of living leaves clients with less disposable income to move, extend or renovate their homes.
Mr Southgate said: “First time buyers will be squeezed out with deposit numbers and need higher deposits, so they’ll be thinking twice about whether to move or not if they’ve got higher energy bills to consider.”
The firm has instead started working with a higher proportion of clients needing debt consolidation advice, a sign of the impact inflation is having on the wider market.
“That’s where the inflationary pressure will really start to bite. With those clients, when they come to remortgage, if they’ve got debt in the background, it can affect who will enter and what rate they get.”
The Wonder Bar
Wholesale alcohol is one of the biggest expenditures for luxury mobile bar hire, The Wonder Bar.
Founder Bethan Trevett puts this down to inflation, but also the minimum alcohol pricing law which came into force in Wales in March 2020. Outlets serving alcohol must now charge at least 50p a unit and this rule has added a further cost on top of already climbing prices.
For Ms Trevett, this means a litre of vodka in Bristol would have a wholesale cost of £13.50, but in Wales the wholesale price is £18.50 for the same bottle.
Rising costs on alcohol, as well as food and fuel, has meant the business has had to pass these price increases onto customers as it tries to recover from recent restrictions on hospitality in Wales.
“Being a mobile bar, one customer is quite a lot of our income. If we don’t get that customer because we’re too expensive then that’s quite a chunk of our income we’re losing,” said Ms Trevett.
She had hopes of opening her own venue for a new hospitality business with a strong community interest, but the rising cost of food, alcohol and energy supply has made the venture unviable.
She said: “We could just see that everything was getting really expensive while we were looking for a venue six months ago. So, we changed our model to do pop-up dining events and now we’re trying to raise a little bit of capital first.
“Finding a venue just seemed more and more unlikely as the general cost of everything went up. It makes me worry quite a lot about whether we would be able to afford to sustain such a thing.”
J & A Construction
The supply chain bottleneck caused by Brexit, Covid and even the container ship blocking the Suez Canal last March has created the perfect storm for price hikes of raw construction materials for steel fabricator, J & A Construction.
The Llanelli-based business has seen the price of steel soar in the last two years, partly caused by high demand after a lull in production at steel mills, like the Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot, which had anticipated demand for steel to slow once the UK had left the EU.
“The rolling mills didn’t know how Brexit would affect sales, so they started to slow down production and demand went up,” said quantity surveyor Elliott Anderson.
“We price steel per tonne. In December 2020, the price of steel was between £650 to £800 per tonne. Today, it costs between £1,250 and £1,400.”
In some instances, the construction company has seen the cost of steel and other specific types of steel, like reinforcement mesh, double overnight.
The price of other materials including timber, concrete, cement and plaster boards have also risen dramatically.
The price of cladding, for example, has risen from £9.50 per metre to £14.50 per metre.
These rapidly soaring input costs have made pricing jobs unpredictable at times and the firm has had to pass these increased costs to materials onto its customers.
“We’re lucky we’ve got good customers, they understand what the current market is like and they know they can trust us,” said Mr Anderson.
Capital Cuisine
The rising inflation rate has prompted Capital Cuisine this month to re-cost all of the ingredients it uses and has seen input costs for these materials rise dramatically.
“We haven’t had a blanket price increase for years as we tend to develop products for our wholesale customers and price the product at the time,” said chef and managing director Colin Gray.
“But my focus now is to re-cost and make sure we’re achieving the margins we need to be more profitable and efficient.”
Cooking oils and butter have seen the biggest price rises, with the price of butter increasing from £1.08 to £1.33 per pack.
The Caerphilly-based food manufacturer and caterer, which supplies dishes and foodservice products to hospitality, has tried to offset these price rises by switching ingredient suppliers and re-engineering its products around pricing to fit within their wholesale customers’ budgets.
This can mean either making products at a reduced size and weight or changing the ingredients used.
“If a customer wants a particular product, for example, made with 100% butter and 100% Belgian chocolate, then we’ll tell them how much that is going to cost them,” said Mr Gray.
“If they want it cheaper then I can make it with 75% butter and 25% margarine. But if they want us to use really good top quality ingredients they have to be prepared for the cost implication that comes with that.”
Supply chain issues with packaging supplies imported from China has also meant a rise in packaging costs.
The cost of cardboard boxes, which the company mainly uses to package its products, have risen by around 25% over the last year.
“One box used to be around 29p, but now we’re paying between 40-50p which on a pallet load can be a difference of around £150 to £200,” said Mr Gray.
