One of Britain’s biggest milk suppliers said yesterday that it was putting up its prices.

Robert Wiseman, which supplies milk to Tesco and Sainsbury’s, would not reveal the scale of the increase, but said it was necessary to combat rising oil, utility and packaging costs and falling bulk cream prices. The company also intends to pay farmers more for raw milk supplies.

A spokesman for Robert Wiseman said: “We don’t know what will happen in terms of having an impact on retail prices.”

The company supplies the milk for Tesco’s Fresh’n’Low milk, which had its price reduced from £1.44 to £1.06 last month, sparking a price war between the leading supermarkets. After Tesco’s announcement, Asda and Sainsbury’s cut the price of a two-litre bottle of milk to 99p, and Asda slashed the price of a two-pint bottle from 80p to 50p.

The increase by Robert Wiseman follows a price rise from rival Dairy Crest, which supplies Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Lidl and the CoOp, last year.

Tesco said it had no current plans to increase the price of Fresh ’n’ Low while Sainsbury’s declined to comment on whether it would raise the price of milk supplied by Robert Wiseman. Negotiations over price are likely to continue for months.

Sainsbury’s said: “We are in constant discussions with all our suppliers and the nature of these discussions is confidential.”

UK consumers are already suffering from rises in the price of oil and utility bills. Official figures state that the average weekly grocery bill for a family of four has risen by 25 per cent in a year to £127, despite price cutting campaigns by supermarkets.

Food price inflation soared to a record 11.4 per cent in August, up from 10.8 per cent in July.

Earlier this month a survey by The Grocer magazine showed that the price of loose apples has risen by an average of 26 per cent in the past year. Kingsmill sliced white bread has leapt by 30 per cent to £1.22, pork chops are up by 45 per cent and dried spaghetti has doubled in price.

Marc Bolland, chief executive of Morrisons, said recently that sales of value foods across the supermarket sector are growing at 26 per cent a year.

However, there may be some light at the end of the tunnel for beleaguered shoppers as Peter Marks, chief executive of the Coop, and Mark Price, managing director of Waitrose, have both said in recent weeks that the worst of the food price inflation will be over soon.

Robert Wiseman’s share price has fallen by more than 20 per cent in the past year as it wrestled with rising costs.

Alan Wiseman, chairman of the company and son of its founder, Robert Wiseman, told the annual meeting in July: “The last few months have been among the most difficult we have ever faced.”

James Targett, an analyst at Citi, cut his target price for Robert Wiseman from 420p to 310p. He said: “While volumes in the first half have been satisfactory, profitability has clearly been impacted by rising costs and falling cream revenues. If the price rises are successful, Wiseman should be able to recoup some of this in the second half . . . the short-term earnings outlook is challenging, with potential for further down-grades.”

The National Farmers Union (NFU) welcomed the announcement. Tom Hind, its chief dairy adviser, said: “This is long overdue and much needed. For months the price of milk has stayed stable despite farmers’ costs increasing. The volumes being produced are also down because of poor weather so milk buyers are having to pay more.”

Pinta points

29p The increase in the price of a four pint carton of nonorganic semi-skimmed milk in the past year (a 25 per cent rise from £1.15 to £1.44)

42p The average price of a pint of nonorganic semi-skimmed milk as of September 26 1.6 litres The average weekly consumption of milk per person in the UK 3,661m Number of litres of milk produced in the UK annually

Source: mysupermarket.com; Defra

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