J Sainsbury PLC (LSE:SBRY) boss Simon Roberts has defended the supermarket's decision to charge motorists more at its petrol pumps, saying drivers should pay to keep food prices low.
“Any benefit we see from any other part of our business, whether that be in Argos whether that be in the bank, whether that be in fuel, gets invested right back into the food business, to keep our food prices as low as they possibly can be,” he told reporters after a trading update this morning.
A report by the CMA yesterday found that motorists paid an extra 6p per litre on average more than they should due to the grocers bulking up their profit margins.
MPs today, meanwhile, accused supermarkets and other petrol station owners of “pocketing” a 5p fuel duty cut announced last year.
Harriett Baldwin, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, accused retailers of not passing on the tax reduction to drivers, which she added had gone straight to their bottom line.
"The thing that annoys me from a Treasury point of view is that the chancellor cut fuel duty by 5p to help families with their cost of living and yet it doesn't seem to have been passed on."
Supermarkets last week defended their pricing after MPs accused them of profiteering from the surge in food inflation.
Roberts warned that although costs for wholesale food are easing, shoppers should not expect prices to go back to levels pre-the Ukraine war as higher labour costs were “fixed” in the business models of supermarkets.
According to the British Retail Consortium, UK shop inflation eased to 8.4% in June from 9.0% in May, but food prices remained in double-digits at 14.6%.