Tesco boss: ‘Food price inflation could be lethal for struggling millions
I do think this article presages some tough Hard Brexit times ahead for the person in the street. It tells us:
Tesco’s UK boss has warned that food price inflation could prove highly toxic for shoppers and lethal for those on a tight budget.
Matt Davies said: “Everybody should be very, very clear how damaging food inflation is to the economy, to retail businesses and manufacturing businesses and how lethal it could be for millions of people struggling to live from week to week.”
He spoke out after Tesco became embroiled in a public spat with one of its main suppliers, Unilever, after the maker of brands including Marmite and Persil demanded an across the board 10% rise in prices in light of the devaluation of the pound after the the EU referendum.
The two companies reached agreement on Friday after it emerged that Tesco was running low on stocks of more than 20 popular Unilever brands because the supplier halted deliveries when the supermarket would not agree to its price demand.
Davies, who was speaking at the Big Debate conference organised by grocery industry body IGD, said it was clear there were inflationary forces in the UK after the Brexit vote but would not say whether they would feed through to price rises on supermarket shelves.