After many months of stalemate, four-pint milk prices moved again this week, with Tesco upping its price by 10p to £1.39. According to BrandView.com, this is the first time Tesco has changed the price of four pints of standard own-label milk since December, when it hiked the price from £1.18 to £1.29.
The question is: will others follow suit? In the past, when one retailer has changed its price, it has been quickly followed by the rest, but recently the big four and Waitrose appear to have settled into more distinct milk pricing strategies.
Asda remains resolutely at £1 for four pints, while Morrisons has been selling at £1.49 since October. With Tesco now at £1.39, only Sainsbury’s and Waitrose sell at the same price, with both still on £1.29 as The Grocer went to press.
Across the mults, the average price for four pints of standard own-label milk now stands at £1.29 compared with £1.14 this time a year ago, when all mults except Asda sold at £1.18.
Farmed salmon continues to show the strongest year-on-year price increases in our wholesale fish tracker, with prices now nearly 60% higher than this time last year.
Slower salmon growth rates - a result of colder weather in Norway this year and higher salmon feed prices - have played a key role, although the supply picture has recently started to improve, causing prices to ease by 7.7%, to £4,411/tonne, over the past month.
Sardine prices have risen seasonally, but with supplies tighter than usual in 2013, these price increases have been somewhat steeper than usual. At £2,806/tonne, sardine prices have increased 18.9% month on month - and are up 32.4% year on year.
Meanwhile, haddock prices continue to tumble - down 15.5% year on year and 7.4% month on month - thanks to better availability of white fish in general, and lower demand for haddock from processors.
However, average base prices on standard own-label ranges do not tell the whole story. Both Tesco and Morrisons also sell fresh milk under tertiary brands that significantly undercut their standard own-label lines: four pints of Creamfields-branded milk in Tesco, for example, costs just £1, while Meadow Park milk in Morrisons is on sale for 97p for four pints [BrandView.com].
In addition, Tesco is currently running a three for £3 deal on four-pint bottles of standard own-label milk - in effect allowing shoppers to buy four pints for £1 despite the base price increase to £1.39.
Although the mults have parted ways on their pricing for four pints, base prices for other formats remain largely consistent across the supermarkets - and there has been little, if any, movement in prices over the past 12 months.
The average price of two pints of standard milk has stayed at 89p over the past year, with one pint remaining at 49p. Six pints have moved from an average of £1.69 to £1.83 - with prices ranging from £1.48 in Asda (the same as last year) to £1.99 in Morrisons, up from £1.74 [BrandView.com].
Meanwhile for organic milk, two pints have gone up from an average of £1.07 to £1.14 across the mults, with four pints moving from an average of £1.69 to £1.84. One pint of organic milk, however, has stayed stable at 58p over the past year.
Average milk base prices in the multiples have moved up as milk prices for farmers have increased following the SOS dairy protests last summer.
During the protests, farmers complained that the price they were being paid for milk was not adequate to cover their input costs, which were rising. Last year’s poor weather meant there was less forage material, meaning they had to buy in more feed, for example.
No comments yet