McVitie's warns the price of our favourite biscuits are set to soar

Virgin Radio

21 Dec 2021, 11:19

We don’t want to be the bearer of bad news, but the biscuit maker has said the prices of its best-selling brands are going to soar due to disruptions in production.

Jaffa cakes, Penguins and Hobnobs are among those that could go up in price by as much as 5%.

The company, owned by Pladis Global said the spike was down to staff absences, an increase in the price of ingredients and higher labour costs.

In an article for the BBC, managing director for Pladis UK, David Murray, said: “Omicron disruption absenteeism, and the rising cost of business going forward present a big challenge for us.

“At the end of the day, like in many other categories, it will flow through to higher prices.”

Rising prices of ingredients such as cocoa beans have had a knock-on effect on the industry and resulted in a double-digit percentage rise in costs, says Pladis.

The company also manufactures Jacob’s Crackers and Go Ahead fruit bars, which have been affected by higher wheat prices.

David Murray said: "We've dealt with substantial challenges in the past in the food industry - whether it's natural disasters, inflation in the economic crisis.

"It's the compression of the challenge, combined with the scale of some of them [that is different this time]."

Other food and drink firms have also recently warned of “terrifying” price rises, which could impact consumers.

You should be alright if you’re a fan of the more understated biscuit, like a chocolate digestive, which the company says will be less affected.

Whatever you do, don’t start panic buying Hobnobs.