World’s Biggest Food Company Warns of More Price Increases

World’s Biggest Food Company Warns of More Price Increases

Nestlé, the world’s largest food group, says the price of staple items will rise further this year, adding to a string of warnings from consumer giants of more pain to come for stretched households.

The maker of Nescafé coffee and KitKat chocolate bars increased prices by 8.2 percent in 2022, but said this was not enough to offset a rise in its own costs, which had dented its profits.

Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider said on a call with reporters today that price increases will be “very targeted” and only implemented where “input cost inflation justifies that.”

He declined to say which of the company’s 2 thousand brands, which span frozen food, confectionery and baby formula, would be affected.

Unilever, Coca-Cola, brewer Heineken, Colgate-Palmolive and Procter and Gamble, which makes Pampers nappies and Pantene shampoo, have all flagged further increases in the prices of their goods this year, as they grapple with elevated commodity, energy and labor costs.

The costs of raw materials such as energy, dairy products and grains remain high, even though they have receded from their peaks. Labor and logistics costs have also climbed. That means prices for goods in stores are unlikely to fall any time soon.

In the US, eggs are seventy percent more expensive than they were a year ago.

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