One of the world’s biggest biscuit makers – with household brands like McVities, Jacob’s, Jaffa Cakes and Hobnobs in its portfolio – said rising commodity prices and supply concerns are the main reasons for the expected price increases.
Key biscuit ingredients, including palm oil, wheat and sugar, have all risen by more than 15%, while COVID put pressure on supply chains around the world. Inflation and Brexit, too, have played their roles.
“We’ve dealt with substantial challenges in the past in the food industry but it’s the combination of these issues, as well as the scale of some of them that is unprecedented,” said David Murray, MD of pladis UK.
“Like many other categories faced with this scale of inflation, we can’t ignore that costs have gone up and this may flow through to higher prices.”
Murray added that while pladis has broadened its supply base and is improving productivity, the spiking business costs will ultimately be passed on to consumers in coming months.
