FMCG giant Unilever has increased the prices of some its products by an average of 5.7 percent following the Brexit referendum vote earlier this year, according to analysis by the Guardian and Mysupermarket.com.
Looking at 20 of the giant’s biggest brands, it seems that its VO5 Styling Mousse was one of the main offenders, with a price leap of nearly 15 percent. Indeed, it seems that the health and beauty sector received the majority of the big price increases, including True Love Impulse Body Spray, Simple Kind to Skin Hydrating Light Moisturiser and VO5 Styling Mousse Extra Body – all of which rose in double digit figures across four supermarkets.
The inflation follows the fall in the pound affecting Unilever’s cost, which has resulted in supermarkets Sainsburys, Asda, Tesco and Morrisons struggling to absorb the price increases, with the impact being felt on shelf prices.
A spokesman for Morrisons told the Guardian, “The figures from MySupermarket almost certainly include items where promotional prices have reverted to the everyday price and this isn’t a price increase.”
Meanwhile, a Sainsburys spokesperson said, “We remain focused on providing customers with quality and value, offering great prices on the products that matter most to them, like Marmite (250g) – £2.50 since July 2014. We sell hundreds of Unilever brands and this limited assortment of items, a tiny proportion of the total Unilever products we sell, provides neither a fair or accurate representation of the value customers find when they shop with us.”
