At the beginning of the year, the food giant Ica announced that around one billion kroner would be set aside to invest in stores around the country lowering food prices or maintaining price levels without increases.
When we have lived for a long time with food prices that seem like a roller coaster, the news was surely a joy in many households.
But the promised investment is still conspicuous by its absence and no investment in prices is visible when we are now in mid-July.
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Food prices are increasing
In a new report from the Matpriskollen, it appears that partly the investment from ICA has not been carried out and partly that the prices of a bunch of goods are skyrocketing.
In June, food-related products rose by 0.1 percent. The biggest driving force in increased food prices was then coffee.
– Brewed coffee, the Swedish people’s favorite drink, increased by as much as 7.9 percent, which in practice means that a coffee package became between SEK 5 and 11 more expensive depending on the brand and store, says Ulf MazurCEO and founder of Matpriskollen in ett press release.
ICA has a market share that corresponds to almost half of the Swedish grocery trade. The result is that the overall price picture is affected by them.
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Ulf Mazur. Photo: Caisa Rasmussen/TTIca’s billion investment failed
The billion dollar investment promised at the beginning of 2024 would be felt by the consumer in March. But that has not been the case. However, Matpriskollen emphasizes that it is also each individual store that sets its own prices, however, it is notable that ICA did not reduce prices more than anyone else during the same period.
Instead, they have rather increased food prices by 0.6 percent in the last three months, while other chains such as Willys, Hemköp, City Gross and Lidl have only raised prices by 0.3 percent on average.
– It would have a big effect on the general picture of food prices in Sweden if this reduction were also to reach consumers. We therefore continue to follow developments, says Mazur.
Ica’s response on the non-appearance of the price reduction
In another email News24 Ica answers why the promised investment did not materialize.
The company’s press officer, Jenny Gerdeswrites that they constantly work to give customers the best price possible and that they carry out long-term investments.
“Based on our business model with independent traders, the work takes different forms in different stores, but the focus is on goods that our customers buy often and we know that the ICA traders have made significant price reductions to customers,” she writes and adds:
She also explains that external factors and the state of the world affect everything from purchasing and transport to the price towards the customer, which resulted in the fact that things may not have gone as quickly as wanted.
“Within the entire ICA, we are constantly working to moderate price increases, but at the same time purchase prices for some goods have risen recently. There are many different factors that affect the development of food prices”.
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