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Mr Kipling owner Premier Foods planning further price cuts

Getty Images A basketful of Premier Foods goodsGetty Images
Premier Foods sells a whole host of household brands

Premier Foods, the company behind brands such as Mr Kipling, Bisto and Angel Delight, is planning to cut prices on more of its products.

It plans to extend price cuts seen at the end of last year to ranges such as Mr Kipling Bakewell slices and Loyd Grossman cooking sauces.

Recent data suggests that food prices are rising less quickly, offering some respite to squeezed household finances.

However, Premier continued to increase prices of own-brand products.

Many shoppers have switched to cheaper supermarket own-brand goods in the face of surging food prices over the past year.

Premier supplies both own-brand products for supermarkets and the food ingredients used to make them.

Rising food prices have been a major driver behind the higher cost of living in the UK.

However, according to recent data, food price inflation fell to 8% in December 2023 down from the recent high of 19.2% in March last year.

Although lower food price inflation might ease some of the extra pressure households have been under, it does not necessarily mean that goods will be cheaper - just that prices are not rising as fast.

Premier Foods started lowering prices of major branded products, such as Batchelors Super Noodles and some of the Mr Kipling slices range, in the final three months of 2023.

The group said the discounts helped it to report strong trading over Christmas, with group sales up 14.4% from the year before.

Suppliers and retailers have been under the spotlight recently amid concerns that savings are not being passed on quickly enough down the supply chain to shoppers.

The sector has come under scrutiny from the UK's Competition and Markets Authority, and in November last year the watchdog said the makers of some popular food brands had raised prices by more than their costs over the past two years.

last month the watchdog said (CMA) into how the food retail sector sets its prices, although the watchdog has ruled out supermarkets profiteering off the back off higher input costs.