TESCO’S chairman has accused greedy food producers of pushing up prices more than they need to.
John Allan said it was entirely possible suppliers were jacking up their prices deliberately.
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Some foods have risen by nearly 20 per cent in a year.
And Mr Allan said Tesco was being forced to question suppliers’ increases “every day of the week”.
He said: “There have been very robust conversations between Tesco and a number of suppliers.”
Mr Allan pointed to a row last year when Heinz tried to raise the price of soup by as much as 73 per cent.
He said: “We didn’t have Heinz soup and ketchup when they tried to put a large price increase through.
“That was eventually settled. We have fallen out with other suppliers. We do try very hard to challenge.”
Mr Allan said that a team of specialists at the supermarket was on the lookout for dodgy price rises, taking advantage of the cost of living crisis to make extra profit.
Asked by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg if some suppliers were trying to take advantage of inflation to jack up prices more than they needed, Mr Allan replied: “I think that is entirely possible.
“It something that our buying teams try to deal with every day of the week.
“Sometimes we succeed on turning these things back, sometimes we don’t.”
