Prices at budget shops Lidl and Aldi set to rise with other high street favourites to follow
BRITS on a budget are to face even higher prices at discount shops such as Aldi and Lidl because of the Chancellor’s tax raid.
Low-cost retailers left to find an estimated extra £200million by Rachel Reeves’ squeeze on employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NIC) have “no choice but passing it on”.
Chains including Poundland, The Range, Home Bargains and B&M Bargains also have to contend with the rise in the National Living Wage to £12.21 from April next year.
No-frills retailers typically employ minimum-wage shelf- stackers while larger supermarkets take on full-timers — paying more to attract and retain them.
The Sun can reveal that Aldi and Lidl, which control 18 per cent of the UK grocery market, each face a £50million-plus hit from the Budget.
Neither disputed the figure.
Analysis suggests B&M, which employs 35,000, will pay around £40million in extra costs, Poundland £25million, Home Bargains about £20million and The Range £15million.
The UK’s second-biggest superstore, Sainsbury’s, said previously it must find another £140million.
Fellow big stores Asda and Marks & Spencer face £100million and £60million bills respectively.
The whack comes as figures from market researchers Kantar reveal food prices rose by 2.0 to 2.3 per cent from September to October.
Retail bosses’ warnings of price rises have cast doubt on Bank of England forecasts that food inflation will fall to 1.1 per cent in six months.
It was slammed previously for acting too slowly to tame inflation in the cost-of-living crisis.
Clive Black, analyst at Shore Capital, said: “Food prices are going to go up . . . and it’s not just the impact from extra costs the stores face, but the whole supply chain who also employ tens of thousands of minimum-wage workers.
“Rachel Reeves’ Budget is putting up the price of food, which will stoke inflation and result in higher mortgage rates for longer too.
“It is disingenuous to say that this Budget is not hurting working people. These kind of businesses have no choice but passing it on.”
Lidl said it was “disappointed” to face further costs but added: “We’re well-equipped to navigate new challenges. We’ll continue to offer customers the best prices and our colleagues competitive wages.”
AZ scandal vow
THE boss of AstraZeneca yesterday said it takes a probe by authorities in China into illegal imports “seriously”.
Last week £14billion was wiped off the British drugmaker’s value after the head of AstraZeneca’s Chinese division was taken into custody.
It involves imports of cancer medicines, which had not been approved, into the country.
AstraZeneca stressed the probe related to five employees and not the firm itself.
It posted a 21 per cent increase in revenues to £13.5billion in the third quarter.
A man's world
A MAN is eight times more likely to be chief exec of a FTSE 100 firm than a woman, say headhunters Russell Reynolds.
Only 12 FTSE 100 firms have gender parity in their boardroom, as 13 of the top-listed firms have zero or one woman on a board.
Home loan hike
BIG lenders are hiking some mortgage rates, despite the Bank of England lowering the base rate last week.
Nationwide Building Society, HSBC, Santander, TSB and Virgin Money have raised some home loan rates.
The banks are reacting to money markets betting that interest rates will stay higher for longer in the next year.
Hina Bhudia, a partner at Knight Frank Finance, said: “We’ll need a real and enduring change in the inflation outlook for mortgage rates to begin falling again.”
Metro's £16.7million hit
METRO BANK has been fined £16.7million for failing to check £51billion in transactions for risks and money-laundering.
The Financial Conduct Authority said Metro failed to monitor 60million transactions over a six-year period.
Junior staff at the challenger bank raised concerns in 2017 but a year later their concerns were removed from board meeting minutes and it took a further two years for Metro to flag up fears.
It’s best of three at Voda
THE boss of Vodafone has insisted its merger with rival Three will create more jobs than those lost to “synergies”.
CEO Margherita Della Valle yesterday said the £15billion deal would create between 8,000 and 12,000 jobs, as the telecoms firm will need plenty of engineers as it ramps up its investment in 5G networks.
The competition watchdog last week said it was minded to approve the merger, provided there were guarantees that customer bills would be frozen.
Vodafone posted a 28 per cent stake rise in operating profit to £2billion in the last six months after it benefited from selling millions of shares in its Indian telephone towers firm.
But investors were spooked by a 6.2 per cent slump in Vodafone Germany — in its biggest market — as it is set to lose customers from a change to TV laws for renters there.
Vodafone shares closed down 8.19 per cent yesterday.
Cull at Post Office’s HQ
THE POST OFFICE will this morning announce plans to make hundreds of head office staff redundant and shut or offload all 115 of its directly owned branches.
The Sun understands that Post Office chairman Nigel Railton has scheduled a meeting to outline reforms, including job cuts to the Post Office’s workforce of 3,000 people as part of its efforts to cut heavy losses.
It will also close or divest its 115 Crown Post Office branches in city centres as it shifts to a franchise-only model.
The overhaul comes as the Post Office is still engulfed in the fallout from the Horizon IT scandal when more than 900 subpostmasters were wrongly convicted of theft and fraud.
The Post Office is trying to win back postmasters’ trust and will insist cost-savings will be used to boost pay and invest in more automation, including note-counting machines and self-scanning tills.
It will also say it does not have plans to reduce the number of its 8,500 branches, run by independent postmasters and local businesses.
A spokesman said: “This will increase postmasters’ share of revenues.”