Britain’s biggest retailers have said shop price inflation is easing ahead of a crunch meeting with MPs on Tuesday over the soaring cost of groceries, but warned food prices were continuing to rise at near record rates.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said annual inflation in overall shop prices eased to 8.4% in June, down from 9% in May, as retailers cut the price of many staples including milk, cheese and eggs. Clothing and electrical goods prices also fell ahead of the summer holidays.
“In the last two years we’ve invested £560m in keeping prices low and more recently we’ve reduced the price of high-volume essentials including bread and butter, milk, tuna and toilet roll,” said Rhian Bartlett, the food and commercial director at Sainsbury’s.
“These latest price cuts will help reassure customers that we will continue to pass on savings as soon as we see the wholesale price of food fall.”
Accrol Group Holdings plc (LON:ACRL) is the UK’s leading independent tissue converter, producing toilet tissue, kitchen towel, facial tissue and biodegradable wet wipes. The UK soft tissue market is worth £1.6bn with private label products comprising circa 50%. Accrol is the leading supplier to the private label market, which is growing at over 8% year on year.
