Princes says canned food demand surged after Be Ready stockpiling campaign

Tinned tuna maker Princes has revealed a surge in demand for canned food from Britons stockpiling essentials in response to the Government’s Be Ready campaign.

The London-listed group reported a rise in demand for products such as tinned fish, meat and vegetables since the public awareness campaign was launched on October 22 encouraging households to prepare for up to three days in the event of disruption to essential services.

Industry data from Worldpanel also out on Tuesday revealed sales of essentials jumped across the grocery sector after the Government advice, with sales of hand sanitiser up 83% year-on-year in the following 10 days, while sales of bottled water rose 67% and tinned and jarred goods lifted 37%.

Worldpanel said the number of people buying tinned meat each day after the launch of the campaign rose by 43% – equivalent to an extra 400,000 shoppers a day.

Giuseppe Mastrolia, interim chief executive of Princes Group, said: “The increase in demand for our ambient food products following the UK Government’s Be Ready campaign further reinforces the relevance of our core categories in providing affordable, nutritious and convenient food solutions.”

Price hikes helped the firm’s like-for-like sales rise 3.3% in its third quarter to September 30 as the group passed on higher costs as inflation rose amid the Iran war.

It said around 70% of the third-quarter sales performance came from price increases in July.

The group said it was starting talks with customers to push through further price rises to counter extra cost inflation.

“We continue to take proactive measures to protect profitability, through disciplined pricing and further customer negotiations to recover rising costs,” Mr Mastroli said.