Procter & Gamble’s price increase hits sales volumes

Procter & Gamble pushed up prices by about a tenth across its portfolio of consumer products last quarter, prompting financially squeezed shoppers to buy fewer items from the world’s largest maker of household goods.

Results on Friday from the company behind Fairy washing up liquid, Oral-B toothpaste and Pampers nappies showed it increased prices significantly across all five of its main divisions in the three months to the end of March.

The price rises from P&G, which also makes Head & Shoulders shampoo, Tampax tampons and Gillette razors, are the latest sign of the persistent inflationary pressures facing consumers globally.

P&G’s sales volumes declined 3 per cent in the period, but the higher prices allowed the Cincinnati-based company to produce net sales of $20.1bn in the quarter, an increase of 4 per cent from the same period a year ago.

The consumer products bellwether left its earnings forecasts for the year to the end of June unchanged but raised its revenues forecasts. P&G said it now expected to increase annual sales on an organic basis by 6 per cent compared with a previous range of between 4 and 5 per cent.