The company behind big household names including Pot Noodle and Marmite has joined the flood of big firms warnings of more price rises to come. Unilever, whose well-known storecupboard brands range from Pot Noodles and Persil to Bovril and Brut, already hiked prices more than 8% in the first three months of this year to offset soaring costs, Mirror Online reports.
But today, Unilever announced: “This period of unprecedented inflation requires us to take further pricing action.” Unilever boss Alan Jope added: “While we’re acutely aware of the pressure on consumers. We believe that increasing prices in response to this extreme commodity cost pressure is the right thing to do.”
A host of other food and drink makers, from KitKat maker Nestle to lager firm Heineken, have signalled more price rises to claw back increases in everything from energy to labour costs. The hit to shoppers depends on how much of the increase supermarkets choose to pass on.
London-based Unilever said it expected costs to jump by £1.8bn in the first half of this year, and £2.3bn in the second, partly because of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Barclays analyst Warren Ackerman said Unilever’s costs would quadruple compared with a year ago, adding: "This is not the peak.”
Unilever is affected by surging prices of soybean oil, grains and other foods used in products from Hellmann’s ketchup to Knorr stock cubes. The firm upped prices in Europe for retailers and others by 5.4% in the first three months of this year.
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