Tesco PLC (LSE:TSCO) chairman John Allan has lashed out against criticism that supermarkets are profiteering by raising prices to record highs in March.
"Anyone who thinks that four pence in the pound as a profit margin is excessive, I'd love to have a conversation with,” Allan said, responding to calls to put off raising prices from Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey.
"By and large, we have to accept the price increases that our suppliers provide,” Allan added while speaking to the BBC, despite being criticised for previously blaming them in January.
Andrew Bailey had warned firms in late March that repeated price rises would only lead to further interest rate hikes after the BoE lifted its figure to 4.25% - the highest in 14 years.
Just days later, Kantar revealed food inflation had hit 17.5% in March, another record, following nine months of consecutive double-digit hikes.
Allan said sales figures would “obviously” be big, but did not shed light on any specific figures ahead of Tesco’s preliminary results announcement, due on April 13.
Tesco had said it expected full-year adjusted profits to sit between £2.4bn and £2.5bn when updating on its Christmas trading in January, with free cash flow due to be “at least” £1.8bn.
Denying Tesco was itself taking advantage of inflation to lift prices, Allan said retailers faced "very, very slender returns on sales" when compared "with most other industries".