Grocery supplier Princes Group signals price hikes as Mideast war adds cost pressures (updated)
31/03/2026 11:14
Not planning blanket price increases, acting to mitigate costs
Monitoring PET costs, but not planning to switch packaging
Adds CEO comments, shares, details throughout
By Yamini Kalia
March 31 (Reuters) - Princes Group PRN.L will raise prices where needed to offset rising fuel, transport, and packaging costs linked to the Iran war, the grocery supplier said on Tuesday, as shoppers and policymakers brace for a pickup in inflation.
Chief Executive Simon Harrison told Reuters that the company would not push through across-the-board increases and was taking steps to limit cost pressures.
The owner of Napolina pasta and Princes tinned tuna said it had secured about 70% of its energy needs for 2026 to protect against near-term volatility and was optimising contracts and routes to manage logistics costs.
The Middle East conflict has sent oil prices sharply higher, with knock-on effects for goods ranging from fertiliser to plastics, raising fears of a fresh inflationary surge just as the energy shock from the Ukraine war was easing.
Princes shares were up 1.9% at 379.5 pence at 0848 GMT.
Harrison said the company was monitoring potential cost pressures related to plastics and Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), used widely in bottles and food packaging, but was not considering switching packaging, citing healthy inventories at suppliers and within Princes.
Princes' adjusted core profit surged 127% to 148 million pounds ($196 million) in 2025 versus a nine-month period ended December 2024, after the company completed a reorganisation of its business and reporting year which resulted in a shorter comparative period.
The company, which debuted on the London market in October with a 1.16-billion-pound valuation, confirmed medium-term guidance for at least 3 billion pounds in revenues and a margin increase of more than 300 basis points from 2024 levels.
($1 = 0.7569 pounds)
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job and Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru. Editing by Rashmi Aich)
((RaechelThankam.Job@thomsonreuters.com;))