Page 86 - General Cases 1

Mr. Polman maintained that other supermarkets had

accepted the price increases of around 10% whilst other
manufacturers in the industry had also raised prices in the

previous months and given the pound’s position many more

would be looking at increasing prices in the near future.

“I live in the UK and shop here," said Mr Polman. "I happen

to like French cheese and French wines and noticed that

most of the brands the supermarkets sell themselves have
increased prices and that is not surprising because they are

paying 20pc more.”

This cautious outlook for Unilever stemmed from weaker
than expected sales growth in the fourth quarter of 2016

and the weak sterling with the result that shares in Unilever

fell by 5%. Market conditions were not expected to improve

until at least the second half of 2017.