Several of the world’s largest consumer goods companies have quelled fears over a global contraction in household spending after their results showed shoppers were still stomaching price rises on a wide range of products from burgers to baby food and toilet rolls.
While some executives cautioned that customer budgets remain under pressure, companies on both sides of the Atlantic reported resilient first-quarter sales after they successfully passed on historic increases in the cost of raw materials to consumers.
Nestlé, the world’s biggest food company, pushed up prices by an average of almost 10 per cent in the first three months of the year — close to the fastest pace in more than three decades — yet sacrificed only a modest slice of its sales volume.