The price of KitKats, Cheerios, Nescafe coffee and more are all going up – and Nestle has warned there could be more increases to follow.
Nestlé, the company behind some of your favourite snack brands, is the latest in a line of restaurants and retailers which have put their prices up.
Nestlé has upped the prices of its products by an average of 6.5% over the past six months – a hike which has helped boost its sales, according to its latest company results.
Nestlé owns a whole host of brands including:
- KitKat
- Cereals including Shreddies, Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, Golden Nuggets, Cookie Crisp and Lion Cereal
- Nesquik
- Nescafe and Nescafe Dolce Gusto
- Nespresso
- San Pellegrino
- Purina – including Felix and Bakers pet food
- SMA Nutrition
- Maggi
Earlier this year, Nestle increased some prices by more than 5% and warned that more could follow as it looked to pass the impact of rising costs on to customers.
For example, data from supermarket price checking site Trolley.co.uk, shows that a 390g box of Cheerios has gone up by an average of20p from £1.30 to £1.50 over the past six months -a 14% hike here.
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The average price for a four-finger KitKat has rocketed by 15% from 60p to 70p since January.
And, a box of 12 100g sachets of Felix cat food has risen by 11%, from £3.50 to £3.91 in the last six months.
Commenting on the price hikes, editor in chief of Finance.co.uk, Laura Rettie said: "Sadly this is just another in a long line of businesses that are being forced to hike their prices.
"Firms are making the difficult decision to choose between passing on cost increases to their customers, making less profit, or decreasing the quality or quantity of goods or services – known as skimpflation."
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Mark Schneider, chief executive officer of Nestle, said the group increased prices “in a responsible manner” across its operations.
The group said it saw the most significant price increases in its petcare business, which runs brands such as Felix and Bakers, where prices grew by 8.8% over the period.
Most companies have blamed price hikes on soaring costs, supply issues and the Covid crisis, saying they have been forced to pass these rising prices on to customers.
Nestlé's announcement follows Unilever's warning that it will have to up the prices of products including Magnums and Marmite as manufacturing costs spiral.
Talks of price hikes have caused controversy between manufacturers and retails. Tesco and Heinz recently called off a war on pricing which left Tesco shelves empty of the Heinz varieties for days.
The latest prices rises come just days after UK inflation hit 9.4%, with food and soft drink prices leapt by almost 10%.
Inflation measures how much the price of goods has changed over time.
It is a backward-looking measure, which means it indicates what has happened over the past year – it does not predict the future.
What other firms have upped their prices?
The announcement by Nestlé comes only a day after McDonald's announced it was hiking the cost of its burgers for the first time in 14 years.
This occurred on the same day that Maccies launches some major menu changes including the introduction of halloumi fries.
The much-loved 99p cheeseburger will increase in price for the first time in 14 years, and will now cost £1.19.
Some Costa Coffee menu items went up by as much as 12% in June, with the cost of a small cappuccino rising from £3.15 to £3.50.
Nando's quietly hiked its prices early this year by as much as 8%.
The restaurant giant added 55p to the price of its whole chicken dish in January.
Clothing giant Next has warned prices will increase by 6% this winter.
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Greggs bakery has also come under fire for increasing the prices of some of its most popular items by up to 10%.
Earlier this year, the Greggs sausage roll went up by 5p, much to the disappointment of food fans.
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