One story has dominated this year in grocery. That’s the cost of living crisis.

It started almost as soon as the shelves were cleared of 2021’s turkeys. Prices started their long ascent, as a result of all kinds of issues: Brexit, the lasting impacts of coronavirus, shortages of labour and raw materials, spiralling commodity, shipping and energy costs… Oh, and the war in Ukraine.

It wasn’t just shoppers feeling the squeeze. Retailers and suppliers almost came to blows when it came to increased costs, resulting in some products, notably Heinz, absent from the shelves of the country’s biggest retailer.

For egg suppliers, it’s been a slow motion car crash. They watched the inevitable barrelling towards them, culminating in rationing, hysteria and gaps on shelves.

And poultry suppliers too, who’ve looked on in horror as farms were gripped by avian flu.

The scorcher of a summer granted brief respite from the solemnity,

Until the politics circus made 2022 the year of three prime ministers… so far. 

Just days into the second PM it became the year of two monarchs, with the death of Her Majesty The Queen uniting the nation in quiet grief.

No sooner was the mourning period over than Liz Truss was rapidly dispatched.

And for the government’s next trick, HFSS multibuys were granted a last minute reprieve from the guillotine.

World Cup promotions were muted by a winter tournament overshadowed by Christmas.

And that’s the story of the year in fmcg. Better luck for 2023, eh.

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