Britannia's planned price hike signals coming inflationary pain

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has roiled consumer firms across the world already contending with labor shortages and supply-chain constraints.

Britannia Industries Ltd., India’s biggest cookie manufacturer, plans to hike prices as much as 7% this year in another sign that inflationary pressures will hurt poorer consumers the most, as the war in Ukraine wreaks havoc on food supply chains. 

“I’ve never seen two years which are as bad,” Managing Director Varun Berry said in an interview at the company’s headquarters in the southern city of Bengaluru. “Our first assumption was a 3% inflation this year, which obviously went wrong by a very big margin because of Mr. Putin -- unfortunately it’s turning out to be more like 8-9%.” 

Russia’s invasion