KitKat, Durex and Dettol makers warn of price hikes amid soaring inflation

KitKat and Nescafe maker Nestle has hiked the prices of its products and warned further rises are on the way.

The Swiss food group said it pushed prices up by 3.1% during the last three months of 2021, compared with the same period the year before, to offset the increased cost of making its products.

It warned that shoppers should expect even higher prices this year due to the growing cost of producing its goods.

Mark Schneider, chief executive of the firm, said: “It’s a safe assumption that our input cost increases for 2022 will be higher than 2021, that is something that we have to reflect in our pricing.

“There is almost no place in the company that is exempt of inflation now.”

The company, which also makes Cheerios and Felix cat food, did not highlight specific products being impacted by price rises.

Nestle explained it has had to ensure “responsible pricing” to offset the impact of rising commodity, labour, utilities and freight costs across its supply chain.

Reckitt Benckiser, the consumer goods company for Durex and Dettol, also revealed that its costs rose by 11% during 2021 and said it would be hiking prices.

However its chief executive Laxman Narasimhan has assured people this does not mean prices will rise by that amount, as the company had ways to "mitigate and manage pricing".

Jeff Carr, chief financial officer, said the firm’s costs had increased "across the board", ranging from crude oil and plastic, to shipping and wages, but the company was "absorbing a significant part" of higher operating costs through "efficiency" and "better buying".

He said: "We are not passing it on to consumers. We are passing some pricing onto consumers but we minimise that through the programmes we have…to absorb those cost increases."

Inflation at 30 year high

The rising prices come amid a growing cost-of-living crisis for people who are also struggling with surging energy bills.

Latest data from the Office for National Statistics showed that Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was 5.5% in the UK last month, which is a near 30-year high.

Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation jumped from 5.4% in December - its highest level since March 1992, when it stood at 7.1%, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.

The new rate of 5.5% is in line with most economists’ predictions but is still considerably higher than the Bank of England (BoE) target of 2% inflation.

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