Most retailers ‘to raise prices due to supply chain woes’
The majority of retail bosses plan to put up prices on goods by the end of the year and one in 10 has already done so, according to the boss of the industry’s trade body.
Helen Dickinson, head of the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said a recent poll of chief executives found that three out of five plan price rises later this year due to soaring supply chain costs.
Her comments come as the boss of Poundland’s said he has seen shipping costs jump tenfold as a result of rising global demand.
And Gary Grant, founder of toy store chain The Entertainer, said delays were affecting a number of UK ports beyond Felixstowe, Suffolk.
Details come despite Chancellor Rishi Sunak playing down concerns, saying there will be a “good amount of Christmas presents available” this year despite supply chain issues.
But Ms Dickinson said: “The supply chain issues are the priority for all businesses right now.
“It is complicated because this looks slightly different for everyone, but they all see an immediacy to this issue.
“They are thinking about Christmas. It is the most important period of the year for a retailer – takings for a non-food retailer in December are an average of 70 per cent higher than other months.
“They are doing everything they can right now to make sure it can be as smooth as possible.”
She added that this is proving costly: “We are already seeing inflation starting to take place.
“We surveyed CEOS and three-fifths said they were going to have to increase prices by the end of the year. Ten per cent said they already have.
“It is sadly a reality when businesses are seeing every single cost, energy, wages, other things, all rising at the same time.”
Mr Sunak earlier said the government was “doing absolutely everything we can” to reduce the impact of the problems affecting the supply chain.
He said: “We can’t fix every single problem but I feel confident there will be good provision of goods for everybody.
“I’m confident there will be a good amount of Christmas presents available for everyone to buy.”
However, the SNP accused Mr Sunak of ignoring industry warnings and of failing to take action after Brexit.
Drew Hendry, its trade spokesperson, said “significantly increasing” the availability of visas for workers where there are labour shortages would help the problem
and make the UK “more attractive”.
He said: “Rishi Sunak's claims are patently false. Tory ministers repeatedly ignored industry warnings and have failed to take the
action required to mitigate Boris Johnson's disastrous hard Brexit, which is in a large part responsible for the supply chain crisis hitting the UK.
""It is absurd that, just two months from Christmas, the UK government has only approved around 20 visas for the 100,000 HGV driver shortage.”