This is why #Marmitegate is more important than you think
A price dispute between the UK's largest supermarket and Unilever, one of the world's biggest suppliers, threatened to plunge Britain into a post-Brexit horror as Tesco stopped selling popular household brands online.
Marmite, PG Tips (tea) and Pot Noodle are among the dozens of brands currently unavailable on the supermarket's website. The row began when Unilever proposed a 10% price increase because of the falling value of the pound against the euro and the dollar after Britain's decision to leave the EU.
Unilever's chief financial officer, Graeme Pitkethly, said the price rises had "landed" with other customers, indicating other retailers had accepted the increase.
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Experts believe the row with Tesco will be settled with a compromise, though there will probably be short- and long-term consequences.
"I'm 100% sure we'll see more of these cases," said leading retail analyst Richard Hyman. "It's going to be a big hit for companies, which will have less money and will have to cut costs elsewhere, leading to job losses."
Most of what we consume in the UK, he argues, is imported, and with devaluation of the pound the cost of those goods will go up.
As long as the pound was strong, Unilever, which makes a lot of its products in the UK but also imports from outside the country, was able to keep the cost of imports down. But that has changed dramatically since the referendum.
It's been estimated that the value of pound sterling has dropped 16% against the euro since the Brexit vote on 23 June.
“We are taking price increases in the UK. That is a normal devaluation-led cycle,” Pitkethly said in defense of the move.
Who takes the pain
But commentators are divided on who's going to absorb this increase in costs.
British shoppers were told to brace for a price increase. Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, believes the impact of the pound devaluation would eventually hit the consumers.
"Retailers are firmly on the side of consumers in negotiating with suppliers and improving efficiencies in the supply chain to control the inflationary pressure that is building through the devaluation of the pound," she said.
"However, years of falling shop prices and higher costs have left limited scope for retailers to continue absorbing this pressure, and everyone in the supply chain will need to play their part in maintaining low prices for consumers.”
Others, like Hyman, believe both Tesco and Unilever need to share the rising costs as competition is so fierce that they won't be able to pass the increases to the customers.
"It's all about who takes the hit," he said. "Not many years ago the answer would've been simple: it would be the consumer. But that's not an option anymore because of the competitive marketplace."
UPDATE: Oct. 13, 2016, 6:26 p.m. BST Good news for Marmite fans -- on Thursday it was reported that the dispute between Tesco and Unilever had been resolved.
