What a start to the year it has been so far. We had Trump, Brexit , Angus, Barbara ,Conor and now Doris, and if that wasn’t bad enough bread prices are going up very soon.
Bread has been too cheap for too long in my opinion, and now because of continued rising costs in the living wage, rates increase , fuel and the deflation of the pound against the dollar and euro. The pound buys you roughly 15% less than before the Brexit referendum, and so a lot of the commodities like on Palm Oil, Softeners & Improvers, Yeast, Soya Flour, Bread Bags and Corrugate, are all costing more to buy.
The average price of a loaf in most supermarkets and discounters is £1 , even for the UK No1 brand Warburtons. I suppose that you have to agree that this works out at just 12.5p for 100g of bread, and you cant buy 100g of many foods for 12.5p. Even cat food is more expensive.
Felix Pouch With Chicken In Jelly 100g is just £0.40. 
The problem now is the price marked £1 loaf, is that going to disappear from our shelves? as it will not be viable to hold the price. The consumers love to buy price marked products, it’s a proven fact. Maybe we will see the PMP at £1.09, who knows.
We as always will try and keep our pricing for PMP (price marked packs) at £1 as it is the only way we can compete in the world of bakery competitively. This is going to be a temporary measure for now to help protect sales and keep consumers.
Our other breads have to go up and it is the same for all the brands. Hovis, Kingsmill and Roberts have announced that they are to increase their breads, only Warburtons haven’t yet, but inevitably will follow suit soon. Watch this space.
Mrbakestone 