The owner of KitKat chocolates, Nescafé coffee and Felix cat food has warned consumers to expect further price rises as sharp inflation in commodities prices feeds through to the high street (The Times £).
Nestlé pushed up prices for its products by more than 5% in the first three months of the year, in the latest sign of steep commodity inflation feeding through to consumer prices for branded goods (The Financial Times £).
Mark Schneider, its chief executive, said: “Cost inflation continues to increase sharply, which will require further pricing and mitigating actions over the course of the year.” (The Guardian).
The Lex column in The Financial Times (£) explores the price hikes at Nestlé further. “A portfolio packed with premium products should aid Swiss food group’s ability to keep raising sticker prices,” the paper writes.
With Nestlé being the latest consumer goods group to warn of further prices to come, The Guardian looks at soaring supermarket prices shoppers find hard to swallow. It readers are reporting some basic goods’ prices are rising by far more than inflation. “The cost of consumer goods is spiralling at such a rate that retail analysts have coined a new term, shelf shock.”
Fears that Britain is heading for a marked slowdown in consumer spending have intensified as it emerged that the public is gloomier about the economy than when banks were on the brink of collapse during the financial crisis of 2008 (The Guardian).
Consumer confidence is in freefall as the cost of living crisis bites, with a closely watched measure dropping to a near-record low this month (The Times £).
British retail sales fell much more than expected in March as soaring inflation exacerbated a cost of living crisis for many households (The Financial Times £).
Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed retail sales volumes dropped by 1.4% in March, after a decline of 0.5% a month earlier as shoppers adjusted to rising costs. City economists had forecast a drop of 0.3% (The Guardian).
The boss of Boots has insisted that there is still ‘a lot of interest’ in the group amid fears its £7bn sale is stalling, The Mail reports, picking up an interview with the chain’s UK boss Seb James with the BBC.
The owner of Pepco, Poundland and Dealz, the European discount retail brands, has pledged to “protect prices” after reporting a 17.5%t rise in first-half revenue driven by new store openings (The Times £).
The Co-op is removing use-by dates from its own-brand yoghurt in an attempt to address the problem of millions of pots that are still safe to eat being wasted each year (The Guardian).
The billionaire Issa brothers are planning to open more Leon cafés and Cooplands bakeries on Asda sites and petrol stations, creating 22,700 jobs (The Telegraph).
Boris Johnson has hinted that physical Brexit border checks on food imports from the EU due to be introduced in July will be delayed for the fourth time amid fears that European supplies of everything from cheese to Parma ham would collapse (The Guardian).
UK ecommerce group THG said it had received several “unacceptable” proposals for the company in recent weeks, as the once high-flying group warned that rising costs would curb profit growth this year (The Financial Times £).
Manchester-based THG (formerly known as The Hut Group), which runs beauty and nutrition websites including Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty and Myprotein, confirmed there had been interest from third parties, but said the company was not currently involved in any talks (The Guardian).
THG shares climbed by 17.5% in the wake of the announcement as the firm toasted record annual sales on the back of a continued consumer shift towards e-commerce, and strong demand for its beauty and nutrition products (The Mail).
THG expected profits this year to be broadly flat as a result of the war in Ukraine, Covid-19 related lockdowns in Asia and inflationary pressures (The Times £).
A business editorial in The Guardian argues that investors should take a cautious approach to THG takeover talk. “The retailer continues to make the simple business of selling stuff online sound complicated,” the paper writes.
A scathing business editorial in The Times (£) says even aficionados of THG may struggle to spot shedloads of intrinsic value at the moment. ‘Hut Group beauty in eye of a beholder.’
As THG’s share price finally turns a corner, Alex Brummer of The Mail ponders the future for the fallen tech star.
Carlsberg has warned it will book a $1.4bn writedown from the sale of its Russian business as part of the exodus of western companies following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine (The Financial Times £).
Belgian brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev is in discussions to sell its stake in a Russian joint venture to its Turkish partner in a transaction that could mean a $1.1bn hit for the world’s largest drinks group (The Financial Times £).
Oatly has poached a veteran Mars executive to take on the new role of global president as the Swedish oat milk maker seeks to regain momentum after production problems and a precipitous fall in its share price (The Financial Times £).
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