Global supermarket chain Carrefour will stop promoting PepsiCo products at its retail outlets in France, Belgium, Spain and Italy due to price increases on popular items such as Doritos, Lay’s potato chips, Quaker Oats, Lipton tea and its namesake soft drink.
The French supermarket chain announced on Thursday that it had removed PepsiCo products from shelves in France and added small symptoms at the point of sale: “We no longer sell this logo due to unacceptable value increases. “
The ban will also extend to Belgium, Spain and Italy, but Carrefour, which has 12,225 outlets in more than 30 countries, did not say when it would come into force in those three countries.
PepsiCo said in a statement that it has “been in discussion with Carrefour for many months and we will continue to engage in good faith in order to try to ensure that our products are available.”
Companies Cheetos, Mountain Dew and Rice-A-Roni have all increased prices by double digits for seven consecutive quarters, most recently rising to an 11% high between July and September.
Their profits have risen, even though emerging costs have slowed sales as other people turn to less expensive stores. PepsiCo also said it has reduced the length of its packaging to meet customer demands for convenience and portion control.
Many food producers opted to shrink packaging while charging the same amount — a strategy known as “shrinkflation” — after supply-chain shocks related to COVID-19 affected many parts of the food chain, contributing to the rising price of everything from berries to corn.
Still, some of the world’s largest retailers have been accused of using soaring inflation rates as an excuse to raise prices and rake in billions of dollars in additional profit. Late in 2021, the FTC launched an investigation into the profit margins of major retailers and consumer-goods companies, including Amazon, Kroger, Walmart, Kraft Heinz and Procter and Gamble.
PepsiCo, founded in Purchase, New York, said price increases are expected to ease and broadly align with inflation, which has fallen especially around the world since supply chains erupted in the COVID-19 pandemic and then Russia’s war in Ukraine, which pushed prices higher.
However, the 20 European Union countries that use the euro saw customer costs rise 2. 9% in December from a year earlier, recovering after seven straight monthly declines, according to figures released on Friday.
Prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages fell after a painful 17. 5% drop in March in the euro area, but were still up 6. 9% in November from a year earlier.
PepsiCo pointed to emerging costs for cereals and cooking oil. These costs have increased following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and continue to be felt by families going to supermarkets. But the costs of food products such as cereals, which are traded on world markets, fell last year. from record grades in 2022.
The U. N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday that its food value index declined 13. 7% in 2023 from a year earlier, with only its measure of the value of sugar emerging in that period.
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