Sainsbury’s boss joins calls for government energy relief as it warns war could weigh on profits
The boss of Sainsbury’s has called on the government to offer energy discounts to businesses to control price rises, warning that the war could damage profits.
Sainsbury’s has become the latest retailer to warn that the Iran war will hurt both its customers and profits.
Britain’s second-largest grocer said it would be ‘absolutely focused on keeping prices low’ as conflict puts pressure on food prices.
Warning about food came from the Food and Beverage Federation inflation It could rise up to 10 percent by the end of the year.
Sainsbury’s said: ‘Conflict in the Middle East will impact both our customers and our business. ‘The duration and extent of these impacts are highly uncertain and this is reflected in our profit forecasts.’
The war means it expects lower profits for the current financial year; total underlying operating profits range from £975 million to £1.01 billion.
Uncertain: Other retailers have warned their outlook is difficult to predict given the war
It was stated that on February 26, profits increased by 1.1 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 1.02 billion pounds.
Chief Executive Simon Roberts said: ‘I would like to reiterate that the food industry uses a lot of energy in both production, processing and retail. We underlined that anything we can do to reduce the cost of energy in the food system will help mitigate the impact of inflation.
‘This will be a key area where the government can support the sector to ensure we keep the effects of inflation low and mitigate it as much as possible.’
‘It is the high-intensity industries that have already received support on this issue; ‘We are looking and want this to include food and food manufacturing, parts of the industry.’
His comments come just days after Tesco’s boss said he was ‘doing all we could’ to keep food prices low as the conflict created ‘further uncertainty’ in the outlook for the year.
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