The highest price increase will be for wine and spirits, 1.5 and 1.2 percent respectively. The price of cider and mixed drinks increases by 0.8 percent and the price of beer by 0.4 percent.
Ulf Sjödin says that the average price increase of 1.2 percent from the suppliers is lower than what he had expected in advance.
– Considering how the Swedish krone exchange rate has gone this summer, I would probably have thought it would be higher, he says.
Big price differences
At the same time, he emphasizes that the price differs greatly between different products.
– Some goods increase more in price and some goods decrease.
But what the price adjustments look like for individual products, Systembolaget does not want to state in advance because it wants to avoid hoarding.
Ulf Sjödin believes that the lower price increase is due to suppliers wanting to avoid too large price changes.
– The suppliers often have a price policy which consists of keeping an even line and avoiding too large fluctuations, you are simply a little cautious, he says.
Leif Stålbalk, wine importer at Principium Dryck, had thought that the price increase in the wine category would be higher.
– If you compare it to the costs in the rest of society, it is a very small increase.
“Consumers react”
However, Stålbalk believes that many wine suppliers have chosen to avoid large increases because they do not want to risk ending up in a higher price category with Systembolaget.
– It can cause consumers to react, he says.
– Theoretically, there could also be even greater competition among more expensive wines than cheap ones, because there are more well-known suppliers and producers there who can charge a little better for their products.
Systembolaget allows its suppliers to adjust their prices for products in the regular, fixed range twice a year, once in March and once in September.
In March, prices were raised on average by 3 percent.