Asda, Primark, Sainsbury’s, M&S bosses issue urgent joint 'warning' to shoppers

Asda, Primark, Sainsbury’s and M&S bosses have all issued an urgent warning for shoppers. The warning from supermarkets Asda and Sainsbury's, as well as fashion retailer Primark and British high institution M&S, comes as customers are told there is "no magic money tree".

Shoppers have been told to expect price increases after Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced a hike in employers' National Insurance costs in last week's Budget from the Labour Party government. Asda chairman Stuart Rose said: "You cannot absorb £100milion of cost. We don’t have a magic money tree in Leeds.”

The price rise warning followed that by Sainsbury's chief executive Simon Roberts, who said the supermarket "just didn’t have the capacity to absorb this level of unexpected cost inflation". Mr Roberts predicted the National Insurance hike would cost the business £140million and added that it would "feed through into higher inflation".

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The chief executive of Primark's parent company Associated British Foods, George Weston, said he felt "the weight of tax rises" in the Budget was falling on the UK high street. The boss of Primark, which has its world's biggest store right here in Birmingham, said the company’s National Insurance bill would rise by “tens of millions” of pounds, but it would try to “hold prices”.

Mike Brewer of the Resolution Foundation also spoke out this week and said: “The short-term effect of these changes will be better-funded public services. But families are also set for a further squeeze on living standards as the rise in employer National Insurance dampens wage growth.”

M&S chief executive Stuart Machin also cautioned it was looking at a £120 MILLION hit. The retailer, which had reported a 20 per cent increase in half-year profits, also said it would do "everything we can" to avoid passing on the extra burden to customers through price hikes.