Sainsbury’s and Unilever deny claims of profiteering in cost of living crisis
Sainsbury’s and the Marmite maker Unilever have both insisted they are protecting shoppers from inflation, denying accusations that some companies are profiteering from the cost of living crisis.
“We are not profiteering in any form,” the chief executive of Unilever, Alan Jope, said as the consumer goods company insisted it was only passing on three-quarters of its increased costs to customers.
“We are very conscious that the consumer is hurting and that’s why we are not passing through the full price increases and are asking shareholders to bear some of the burden.”
His comments came as Unilever announced a 10.5% rise in sales in the first three months of the year led by a 10.7% rise in prices, indicating a dip in volumes. Sales of beauty, bathing and cleaning products recorded the fastest growth while the amount of nutrition items – such as mayonnaise and stock cubes – fell back as prices soared by 13.4%.
Jope said Unilever’s profit margins had fallen by two percentage points to just over 16% between 2021 and last year, and were expected to remain at that level this year. He does not expect prices to begin to fall any time soon as Jope said the business continued to experience major increases in the price of its raw materials, including a 20% price in the rise of chemicals, a 15-30% rise in cocoa and sugar, and up to 20% rise in soya bean oil. “There is still high inflationary pressure,” he said.
The boss of Sainsbury’s promised the retailer would do “everything we can as fast as we can” to pass on any drop in the price of goods.
Announcing a better than expected 5% fall in underlying profits to £690m and a near-6% rise in sales in the year to 4 March, Simon Roberts, the chief executive, said the supermarket group was
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