After Marmitegate, more price rises from Unilever

UNILEVER is forcing through inflation-busting price rises on a vast range of popular brands in the wake of the Marmitegate row.

The company appears to be carrying out its warning that it would increase the cost of its products, which also include PG Tips and Pot Noodle.

The global giant campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU and warned its workers of the dangers of voting to leave. Subsequently, it has blamed the impact of the Brexit vote and the resulting fall in the value of the pound for its price rises.

Last month, Tesco challenged the increases and became involved in a standoff which saw supplies of Marmite and other Unilever brands run low on shelves.

The supermarket appeared to have come out victorious and won plaudits for protecting customers. However, the latest figures show Unilever prices are rising – with many now well above the average for the past 12 months.

And it is shoppers who are paying the price for these ‘Brexit Bandit’ increases at the till.

A box of 240 PG Tips pyramid tea bags costs £5.99 at Tesco – 99p more than a year ago and 28 per cent above the 12-month average.

A chicken and mushroom flavour Pot Noodle is £1 – 15 per cent higher. A 1.61kg box of Persil non-biological powder is 31 per cent up at £7. Ironically, one of the few Unilever products that has not gone up at Tesco is Marmite, where the price of a 250g jar has been held at £2.35.

Similar price rises have been seen on Unilever products sold by Sains- bury’s and Morrisons. A 500ml bottle of Cif Cream lemon cleaner is now £2.50 at Sainsbury’s, 30 per cent above the 12-month average.

At Morrisons, a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle has risen to £1.12 – 27 per cent above the average for the past 12 months.

Unilever was among the businesses which warned before the June referendum that Brexit could have a negative effect, provoking allegations of scaremongering.

Chief executive Paul Polman, along with former chief executives Patrick Cescau and Niall FitzGerald and former chairman Sir Michael Perry, sent a letter to employees effectively warning them of the dangers of a vote to leave.

Last month, the firm’s finance chief Graeme Pitkethly insisted that the fall in the pound made imports more expensive and this would feed through to higher prices.

Tesco chairman John Allan warned recently that food prices could increase by 3 per cent on average. The British Retail Consortium, which speaks for the supermarkets, said consumers should expect price rises, reversing two years of falls that have resulted from a supermarket price war.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive at the BRC, said: ‘It is inevitable that imported inflation will begin to make its mark and we would expect to start to see this effect coming through in the first quarter of 2017.’