Prices need to be “justified”
Dave Lewis, Tesco chief executive has warned global suppliers not to inflate prices because of the fall in the pound.
His comment comes as a first since supplier Unilever tried to raise the cost of popular food products such as Marmite, this move came due to the weaker pound.
Tesco, the UKs biggest retailer briefly stopped online sales of Unilever’s goods.
Lewis said any price rises need to be “justified”.
However, he agreed on inflationary pressures being an issue but he also claimed that multi-national companies should not raise its prices just to reassure its investors.
Lewis told the BBC: “The only thing we would ask of companies that are in that position is they don’t ask UK customers to pay inflated prices in order that their reporting currency is maintained,”
“They don’t do that for countries outside of the UK.”
Unilever argue that the price rises are needed due to higher import costs, even though Marmite is produced in the UK.
Lewis came to an agreement with Unilever but the terms of this deal have not yet been disclosed.
Since the UK voted leave in the EU Referendum, the pound has fallen against the dollar drastically by 16 per cent.
Although a weaker pound has increased the price of imports, it does make UK exports cheaper for foreign goods.
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