A taste of the future? Price of Marmite up 11% in a year

THE grocery giant behind some of the biggest names on supermarket shelves – from Marmite to Magnum, Dove and Pot Noodle – has increased prices by 11.2 per cent in a year.

Unilever, which is responsible for 400 brands sold around the globe, said it had been forced to pass on increases in its own costs, including raw materials, which amount to about £4billion this year. Company bosses said further increases were in the pipeline.

Industry analysts said the era of high price rises was here to stay against a background of rising cost of commodities, ingredients, energy, staff and fuel. Andy Searle, of management consultants Alix Partners, said: ‘We’re going to be stuck in this environment for a significant amount of time.’

It comes as retailers said shop price rises were at running their highest rate since at least 2005. The biggest increases were seen on fresh food, including fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy, which rose by an average of 8 per cent.

▪ Britan is set to be the slowest growing economy in the G7 next year. The International Monetary Fund has warned the UK will expand by just 0.5 per cent in 2023 – at half the rate of the US and France. The grim forecast is worse than its April predictions, when it had pencilled in growth of 1.2 per cent for the UK.