Brexit, Pound Value, Put Pressure On Retail Grocery Prices

Food retailers in the U.K. may be using Brexit and the drop in the pound to justify price hikes. Data collected by Mysupermarket.com show that U.K. supermarkets are charging a lot more for Unilever products than a year ago, and the trend is not slowing. Stores whose prices have risen include Asda, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, and Tesco. But there is less evidence that Asda’s prices on Unilever products have risen very much, mainly because Asda, owned by Walmart, benefits from the U.S. retailer’s massive buying power. For its part, Unilever, which has consistently warned that Brexit would lead to price increases, said raising prices for retailers is “never done lightly” and it is absorbing most cost pressures itself.