Thorntons has become the latest confectioner to warn of price hikes on its chocolate products, as cocoa costs continue to soar.
The upmarket chocolatier said it had not yet followed Cadbury and Nestle in raising its shelf prices but has now admitted the 25% jump in cocoa prices over the past few months could be passed on to shoppers.
“We do try to hedge this as far as possible and to buy forward in the market to mitigate against rising input costs,” said interim chief executive Mark Robson.
“But if prices continue to go up and up, it could come to a point where we do pass it on.”
Last week The Grocer revealed that Cadbury and Nestle were increasing the prices of some of their most popular chocolate lines by 7% to cope with rising ingredient costs.
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Own-store sales slide again at Thorntons (6 October 2010)
Chocolate giants push up prices of key brands (4 October 2010)
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