The price of several own label products increased since last week across several retailers, including fruit & vegetables, according to The Grocers Key Value Items tracker.
Own-label potatoes, cheese slices, sausage rolls, catfood pouches, apples and onions all increased in price from 12 December to 19 December.
Cat pouches increased across Aldi, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. In Aldi, the pack of 12 pouches went from £2.59 to £2.69. In Sainsbury’s, the price was £3.10 but increased to £3.80. In Tesco the price went from £3.10 to £3.60.
The catfood is up by 46.2% year on year on average across all retailers. Having a pet has become more expensive in general: own-label cat litter increased by an average of 21.2% over the past year, and own-label dogfood increased by 31%.
Own-label red onions increased in price at both Sainsbury’s and Lidl. Lidl’s onions cost 59p on promotion, and increased to 72p. Sainsbury’s increased the price of its onions from £1.05 to £1.10.
In Sainsbury’s, potatoes came off promotion. They were £1.59, and went on promotion for £1. The potatoes then increased to £1.49, slightly cheaper than before they went on deal.
Apples also increased in price in Sainsbury’s. Granny Smith apples came off promotion at £1.70, after being £1.20 on promotion.
Richard Lim, CEO of Retail Economics, explained that price rises across core staples demonstrated the magnitude of inflationary pressures.
“It’s one of those areas, especially across those core staples like milk and cheese and bread and potatoes, where retailers really want to limit price increases as much as possible,” said Lim.
“The fact that we’ve seen quite aggressive price increases across some of those product lines and areas just shows how much how much inflationary pressure retailers are under in that they have no choice but to pass through some of those costs on to consumers.”
Several branded items also experienced price increases in the past week. Nescafé Original and Nescafé Gold Blend both increased in price at Sainsbury’s. The price of Nescafé Original increased from £2.65 to £3.
Nescafé Gold Blend was £7.30 before going on promotion at £5 from 2 December to 12 December. After the promotion, the coffee was briefly priced at £7.30 again on 13 December before rising to £8.10, an 80p increase on the price before the promotion.
Asda also increased the price of Nescafé Original. It was £3 prior to promotion, which dropped to £2.50 on promotion and then increased to £3.30, 30p higher than the price before the promotion was introduced.
Dolmio Bolognese sauce increased at Lidl and Sainsbury’s. Lidl increased the price of the 500g jar from £1.59 to £1.69, and Sainsbury’s took the product off promotion, increasing the price form £1.50 to £2.20.
As brands pushed through price increases, Lim described the the relationship between brands and retailers as “increasingly difficult”.
“Ultimately brands are facing significant price rises, whether it’s through commodities, or supply chains, or labour costs, or utilities and energy costs,” said Lim.
“They have to pass some of those costs on to the grocers, and there’s obviously a friction there.”
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