A leading retail analyst has suggested that retailers are likely to be “stuck in the middle” should FMCG companies decide to implement price rises in the UK in the coming year.
Patrick O’Brien of Verdict Retail told The Guardian that while currency devaluations are could affect the cost of items by as much as 20%, “there is no way that retailers will be able to, or will attempt to, pass on that sort of price rise. […] It is going to differ in different sectors. It could be as much as 3% to 5% but it is difficult to gauge at the moment.”
O’Brien suggests that while the burden of price increases is likely to be shared between retailers and consumers, it is retailers that are likely to be “hit the worst, I think, in terms of their margins.”
He noted that price increases, if they are to occur, are likely to be implemented at the start of 2017, following the Christmas period.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
