Crunch! Walkers puts 10% on price of crisps
WALKERS has blamed Brexit for a ten per cent increase in the price of a packet of crisps.
The company’s American owner claims ‘fluctuating exchange rates’ due to Britain’s decision to quit the EU has pushed up the cost of oil, seasoning and packaging.
It means a standard bag will rise from 50p to 55p, with a larger grab bag going up from 75p to 80p. Leicester-based Walkers, whose adverts feature former England striker Gary Lineker, is the latest firm to blame Brexit for price hikes.
The news came as Birds Eye threatened to raise the cost of fish fingers, chicken nuggets and frozen peas by as much as 12 per cent, with the brand blaming the crash in the pound.
On some product lines, the firm is considering shrinking pack sizes instead, cutting the number of fish fingers, for example, from 12 to ten.
Supermarket bosses are believed to have accused the company – partly owned by billionaire hedge fund tycoon Noam Gottesman – of ‘profiteering’ from Brexit.
Typhoo last week warned tea bags could go up because of the rising cost of importing leaves from Kenya, while Tesco refused to stock Marmite last month after Unilever tried to force a ten per cent rise.
Cash-and-carry firm Blakemore accused Walkers owner PepsiCo of exploiting uncertainty cause by Brexit.
And Naeem Khaliq, of United Wholesale Scotland, said: ‘Walkers is a British product. So I think they are using Brexit for an excuse to say the price is going up.’
A Walkers spokesman said: ‘While our potatoes are British, we import a number of different ingredients and materials.
‘We are taking steps to cover some of these additional costs through selective cost price changes. It will be for individual retailers to determine the impact on the retail price.’
Meanwhile, the British Retail Consortium has warned failure to strike a good Brexit deal in 2019 could see a massive increase in tariffs on clothes and imported meat.