AEON says product prices up by 3-5% but delays drastic increases for 3 to 6 months
PETALING JAYA: Retailer AEON Co (M) Bhd said prices of products sold in their outlets have increased by 3-5% but it is delaying drastic price hikes for three to six months to allow consumers to adapt to the current inflation situation.
The group’s managing director and CEO Shafie Shamsuddin said, “To give you some perspective, (prices of) some of our products have been increased (from) 3% to 5%, however we have been able to push down the price increases to be delayed to about 3-6 months in order for us to give space to our consumers to adapt to the current conditions.”
Shafie said that they are resisting pressure from their partners and suppliers to hike prices drastically, during a virtual media briefing after AEON Malaysia’s AGM.
He said that retailers have been under pressure since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic but they have been able to be agile “to be able to react to the very challenging situations” and will continue to thrive meet challenges by collaborating with their vendors and partners to serve their customers and consumers.
He said they will “do (their) best to reduce our cost of running our business in order for us to sustain, as much as we can in order to restrain the prices going up.”
The group recorded a net profit increase of 27.38% to RM28.07 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 compared with RM22.03 million in the same quarter last year, which they attribute to improved retail margin and disciplined cost management.
Together with their partners, AEON announced that they will launch an anti-inflation campaign soon.