The boss in charge of frozen food shop Iceland has warned shoppers of price rises and claimed the change is “inevitable” due to the current HGV shortages.
Richard Walker, managing director of Iceland, explained that companies are now increasing the wages of lorry drivers in an attempt to attract more of them into the field.
He said the combination of issues may lead to price inflation and customers having to spend more on their groceries, reports MEN.
Speaking to Sky News, he said: “I think inevitably it will lead to some form of inflation because this driver issue is affecting the whole supply chain."
He continued: "It's not just affecting our part of it, which is from the depots to the shops.
“It's also affecting the suppliers into the depots or the produce from the fields into the supplier.”
The statement came not long after Richard Walker wanted that delivery issues could “cancel” Christmas in 2021.
Supermarkets like Asda and Tesco have introduced a £1,000 starting bonus for new hires while M&S offered a £2,000 incentive, reports the Mirror.
And, posh retailer Waitrose listed a salary of up to £53,000 for new lorry drivers.
Plenty of other companies around the UK are struggling to meet demand due to a lack of workers as McDonald’s, Wetherspoon and Nando’s experienced shortages over the last few weeks.
Around 14,000 European lorry drivers left Britain last year and only around 600 returned.
Plus, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic there is a large backlog of HGV driver tests meaning sourcing new drivers has been difficult.
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